O's win for Trey after trade: 'He's the gold standard'

ARLINGTON -- There will be a time when it feels more normal for manager Brandon Hyde, when he writes out the Orioles’ lineup card without Trey Mancini’s name and doesn’t find it peculiar. It might help that he and the O’s get a quick introduction to Mancini the Astro when they visit Houston at the end of the month, and again in a more nostalgic sense when Mancini comes to Baltimore at the end of September. Even by then, the memories will be hard not to bubble up.

Baltimore’s 7-2 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field on Monday night, hours after they traded Mancini to the Astros as part of a three-team deal, was a quick rebound from the emotional roller coaster of the afternoon. The truth is, though, that no amount of runs could have truly filled that hole.

“You've got to put faith in the brass and what decisions they make,” said center fielder Cedric Mullins, Mancini’s longtime friend who homered on the third pitch of the game. “We're on the cusp of potentially getting a Wild Card spot. Trey being gone, I think it was really important for us to go out and get the win today.”

• Mancini traded by O's: 'There's so many emotions'

Mullins’ homer ignited an offense the Orioles hope can pick itself up after losing one a consistent contributor. It helped that there were even more signs of life: Adley Rutschman reached base four times (two doubles, a single and a walk), paired with additional mutl-ihit performances from Mullins, Ryan Mountcastle and Jorge Mateo and Spenser Watkins' quality start, with six innings of one-run ball.

"I think it says a lot to who Trey is and who Trey was to us. None of what we've accomplished is possible without him,” said Watkins, now with an ERA of 1.85 over his last six outings. “... Of course we all have in the back of our mind [that] we miss Trey, but we're excited to get a win and we'd like to think it was for him."

“Very tough day,” Hyde said. “I had no idea how we we're going to respond.”

Here’s how: Mancini, upon being told of the news, offered a hug and goodbye to each of his teammates. To some, he doled out gifts -- a signed jersey, old bats. To others, reflections of long relationships. To all: an inspiration from the past two years and, now, for the final two months.

And then a game.

“It was an emotional two hours. A happy, a sad two hours,” Watkins said. “I mean, we went through the whole rigmarole.”

The postgame scene was “a low roar,” Baltimore feeling pleased with the win but still emotionally torn about the clubhouse loss. The Orioles, despite it all, find themselves 2 1/2 games back of a Wild Card spot and back above .500 (52-21).

“He's a guy that I look up to, that a lot of guys look up to,” said Rutschman, who now takes over as the franchise face. “When you talk about a guy who's a leader, who's a team guy, that's him. He's the gold standard. It's just been an honor to be able to play with him and learn from him.”

Asked what Mancini has meant to him, Anthony Santander, a teammate since 2017, reached back into his locker and pulled out a black No. 16 jersey, signed by Mancini.

“It was a little difficult, honestly,” Santander, now taking the mantle as longest-tenured Oriole, said through team translator Brandon Quinones. “We understand it's part of the business, part of the game. It always remains a possibility. But it's just the way things go. I'm just wishing him nothing but the best going forward, and hoping he gets to win a World Series with Houston.”

• Inside Trey Mancini's inspiring return to baseball

The personal story is what sticks out the most. Mancini, who missed the 2020 season after a colon cancer diagnosis, has been an inspiration for the franchise, for Baltimore, for baseball and the sporting world as a whole.

Closer Jorge López, whose son Mikael has battled chronic illness all his childhood, felt an admiration for Mancini that comes with an inexorable link.

“I feel like it’s close to what I've been through, not only me, my son,” López said. “… He will be, in our mind, an inspiration.”

Mullins also has an insight. He revealed before the 2022 season that he underwent surgery to treat Crohn's disease in ’20, but didn’t want to go public until this past spring so as not to take away from Mancini’s comeback tour. The in-person bond may be gone, but the link endures.

“It's just the business, it's baseball. It's going to happen,” Mullins said. “But the relationship itself stays strong forever.”

Replacing Mancini the offensive contributor is one goal. Replacing Mancini the clubhouse voice and inspiration is something no Minor League promotion or acquisition can mirror.

Said Mountcastle: “He’s the nicest human I've ever met.”