As he walked up to the plate that night in Anaheim, California, Mancini almost cried for an entirely different reason. Six years removed from what Mancini calls \u201cprobably the hardest day\u201d of his 2020 nightmare, Sara Perlman Mancini stood up in the stands as her husband walked to the plate.<\/p>\n
She raised Sadie high in her arms so Mancini could see their daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could just tell, the smile on his face was the happiest I had ever seen him,\u201d Perlman Mancini said.<\/p>\n
Life is not perfect. Mancini knows that. He has faced more than enough barriers \u2014 a life-threatening diagnosis, a difficult 2023 season that ended with him getting cut by the Chicago Cubs \u2014 but there are perfect moments.<\/p>\n
None could be so perfect as that night in Anaheim, when Sadie watched her dad play a Major League Baseball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have her there the other night,\u201d Mancini said, \u201cit seemed like a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
A reason to try again<\/p>\n
Mancini didn\u2019t even want to look at his bat, because life with it in his hands hadn\u2019t been easy.<\/p>\n
![\"Trey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/KZRVDCHPNJAD3D2DBSFFA3NWWI.jpg\")
Mancini holds his daughter, Sadie, at Angel Stadium on the day of his return to the sport. (Courtesy of Sara Mancini)<\/p>\n
After the longtime Orioles first baseman was traded to the Houston Astros midway through 2022, ending his time with the organization that drafted him, Mancini\u2019s results on the field were shakier. He helped the Astros win a World Series title and signed with the Cubs, but after 79 games, during which he produced a .635 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, Mancini was designated for assignment.<\/p>\n
Mancini spent spring training in 2024 with the Miami Marlins, but that didn\u2019t lead to a major league opportunity, and he decided against infrequent playing time in Triple-A.<\/p>\n
So from April 2024 onward, Mancini put the bat away. He focused on repairing himself in a way that perhaps was lost in the drive to return from cancer to the baseball field as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really lost all of my confidence, essentially, at that point, and I was pretty broken,\u201d Mancini said of being designated for assignment by the Cubs. \u201cI wanted to be away from the game and felt like I didn\u2019t want to come back for a long time. Having to get over everything that happened, starting with my cancer diagnosis, it was a tough several years. It was right in the middle of my prime and just slowly kind of lost confidence over the years until I lost, really, a sense of who I was as a baseball player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life went on away from the field. The couple traveled the world in the summer \u2014 a first for them, a freedom afforded by not being beholden to the baseball calendar.<\/p>\n
But then Mancini\u2019s phone buzzed. It was Brady Anderson, a longtime Orioles player who was part of the front office that drafted Mancini in 2013.<\/p>\n
![\"Los](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/RYZX6HOXR5B6RLJY6HH4NH7JP4.jpg\")
Mancini is greeted by first base coach Adam Eaton after hitting an RBI single during the second inning of the June 8 game. (William Liang\/AP)<\/p>\n
A fire, starting slowly, began to grow within Mancini once more.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrady texted me in late July of 2024, and he said I should give it another shot, and if I wanted to, and I was fully committed to it, he would help me,\u201d Mancini said.<\/p>\n
Mancini took Anderson up on his offer. <\/p>\n
\u201cBrady\u2019s text kind of confirmed deep down what I knew, that I should keep going and give it another shot,\u201d Mancini said.<\/p>\n
That October, for the first time in months, the bat was back in his hands as he hit with Anderson. Thus began another grueling cycle for a first baseman on the wrong side of 30. He signed a minor league deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2025 and performed well at Triple-A Reno, with a .895 OPS.<\/p>\n
But when Mancini opted out of his contract on July 1, 2025, hoping to receive an opportunity with another club to return to the majors, no calls came. So once more, Mancini turned his focus back to life away from this game. Sara gave birth to Sadie in October 2025, and any thoughts of a comeback seemed outlandish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t even thought of baseball and didn\u2019t think anything was going to happen,\u201d Mancini said. \u201cI would\u2019ve been crazy to hang onto the hope that I would even be playing baseball the next year. Nobody wanted me then, why would anyone want me now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson did.<\/p>\n
When Anderson became the Angels\u2019 hitting coach in November, he told Mancini he would push Los Angeles to sign him. Mancini appreciated the sentiment but didn\u2019t really think much of it until a minor league deal began formulating in January. Despite everything, despite understanding that a path to the majors was far from clear, Mancini signed on for one more ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn his heart, and in mine, too, because I saw it through him, he was not at peace with the way he left the game,\u201d Perlman Mancini said. \u201cAnd, granted, a lot of people don\u2019t leave the game when they feel it\u2019s time. Obviously, Father Time, injuries, all those things might happen where you don\u2019t get to say bye to the game of baseball or whatever sport it may be. And he\u2019s very lucky to have this opportunity through Brady, and he knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Triple-A Salt Lake, Mancini once again performed. But a major league chance still seemed unlikely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe odds were definitely stacked against me,\u201d Mancini said. \u201cLook, I\u2019m 34, I\u2019m a first baseman and right-handed. It\u2019s analytically not sexy at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He came close to retiring in late May. When the Salt Lake Bees played the Round Rock Express near Austin, Texas, Mancini\u2019s family gathered for the games. Perlman Mancini said her husband thought that would be it \u2014 that he would officially hang it up, call it a career and move on with fatherhood as his sole focus.<\/p>\n
But something struck him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always had in the back of his mind, \u2018It would be really cool if Sadie saw me play in one major league game. That\u2019s what I worked so hard for,\u2019\u201d Perlman Mancini said.<\/p>\n
And on June 8, at Angel Stadium, it all came to fruition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like he was so good to the world of baseball and he\u2019s such a good person, I just wanted him to get one more shot,\u201d said Perlman Mancini, who covered the Orioles for MASN. \u201cWhether it\u2019s a success and it\u2019s long term or if it\u2019s just that one week with the Angels, he deserves to be on that big stage one more time and leave it all out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
A night that meant everything<\/p>\n
It was like debuting all over again. And what a debut it was.<\/p>\n
Trey Mancini, No. 34 for the Los Angeles Angels, playing first base. His wife, mother and mother-in-law cheered. After three years away, an injury opened a short-term pathway to the majors, and in his first game, Mancini recorded three hits and drove in a run.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo make it back up and have a game like that and help a team win a baseball game, a Major League Baseball game, I forgot how good it feels and what an honor and privilege it is to get to play up here,\u201d Mancini said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that Mancini ever took that for granted or found it to be a chore earlier in his career. But time away can heighten the feeling once back around the best players on the planet, \u201cand it\u2019s something I really tried to soak up that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"ANAHEIM,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/H4ZAZGSMGBDPHDZL2H6NMQM34Y.jpg\")
Mancini slides into home plate to score against Collin Price of the Houston Astros during the second inning at Angel Stadium on June 8. (Katelyn Mulcahy\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
He knew it wouldn\u2019t last forever. So as time slowed down, he looked into the stands and found his wife and daughter \u2014 the people who made this even sweeter than his debut a decade ago with the Orioles.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, with Vaughn Grissom returning from the injured list, the Angels designated Mancini for assignment. He played five games, none as impressive as his first game back. He\u2019ll hit waivers, where Mancini will be available for 29 other major league teams. If he goes unclaimed, Mancini faces a choice: accept an outright assignment to the minors, elect free agency in search of another opportunity, or choose to retire for good.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s the latter, Mancini can say goodbye knowing he made it back one more time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that he was able to leave the game, and the game kind of leaving him now that he was DFA\u2019d, with a different taste in his mouth,\u201d Perlman Mancini said.<\/p>\n
But that decision is for another day. For now, that day in 2020 is at the forefront of Mancini\u2019s mind, just as it was when he saw Sara and Sadie in the stands last week. He dreamed of being a father. That dream was in jeopardy \u2014 so he cried on a tennis court on the hardest day of his cancer journey.<\/p>\n
Six years later, Mancini is healthy. He\u2019s with Sara and Sadie. And just to top it all off, he earned at least one more ovation before the curtain closes on his baseball career.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see Sadie in the crowd as I was playing last week, I just thought about that moment, and it was hard to keep it together,\u201d Mancini said. \u201cAs time goes on, you don\u2019t play those moments in your mind as much, and you\u2019re just in the moment of that day, but it\u2019s something I try to keep with me. It helps with perspective, knowing how lucky I am to be here and be healthy and have our baby girl that we love more than anything in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During an off week from Trey Mancini\u2019s cancer treatments in 2020, he and his then-girlfriend, Sara Perlman, headed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[367,1558,363,11999,99],"class_list":["post-715318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-american-league","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-national-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}