Angels Designate Trey Mancini For Assignment

The Angels have designated first baseman/outfielder Trey Mancini for assignment, reports Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner. MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger first pointed out that Mancini no longer had a locker set up in the clubhouse but that Vaughn Grissom — who’s been out with an oblique strain — did have a locker there. The team has since announced Mancini’s DFA and Grissom’s reinstatement from the 10-day IL.

Mancini, 34, made his return to MLB last week after an absence of about three calendar years. It’s the second comeback story in the former Orioles star’s career. Mancini was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer during spring training back in 2020, missed the season but returned to great fanfare the following season after announcing that he’d gone into remission and was cancer-free.

Though this comeback may not be quite so emotional, it’s still rather remarkable. Mancini hit .234/.299/.336 in 79 games with the ’23 Cubs and was released that summer. He didn’t play anywhere in 2024 and logged only 74 Triple-A games with the Diamondbacks organization last year. The list of 34-year-olds who return to MLB after a 35-month absence surely isn’t all that long, and it had actually been four years since Mancini was last a legitimate contributor on a big league roster.

Despite that long layoff, Mancini picked up three hits in his return to the Show. His brief Angels tenure will conclude with a 4-for-13 performance and an oddball .308/.286/.462 batting line — a byproduct of tallying three singles, a triple and a sacrifice fly in his short time as a Halo.

Looking beyond his tiny sample of plate appearances with Anaheim, Mancini has been reasonably productive in his recent Triple-A work. Dating back to last season, he’s slashed .295/.375/.500 with 22 homers and 33 doubles in 559 plate appearances between the D-backs’ Reno affiliate and the Angels’ Salt Lake club. That’s a nice-looking line on the surface, but it bears stating that said production is only about 8% better than average (by measure of wRC+) in the Pacific Coast League’s supercharged offensive environment.

The Angels will either trade Mancini or place him on waivers (outright or release) in the next five days. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so it could take up to a week before we know the outcome of today’s DFA.