Mancini has furry workout buddy amid recovery

Despite undergoing treatment for Stage 3 colon cancer and quarantining due to the coronavirus pandemic, Trey Mancini is still finding ways to get his workouts in. And he’s doing it with a smile.

Mancini was grinning from ear-to-ear in a homemade video posted to Twitter late Monday night that showed the O’s star squatting with a special friend in his arms: a puppy he and his girlfriend recently adopted named “Olympia.”

The video was posted by Mancini’s girlfriend and former MASN sideline reporter Sara Perlman, who now co-hosts “The Daily Line” on NBC Sports.

“Trey’s road to recovery has begun, starting with some light squats,” Perlman tweeted. “No dumbbells necessary.”

Cradling Olympia, a barefooted Mancini does a round of squats on a hardwood floor. At one point, he turns Olympia around to face the camera.

“He’s like a 10-pound dumbbell,” Mancini jokes in the video. “That’s a good start for me.”

Having undergone surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his colon on March 12, Mancini was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer several days later, after doctors found evidence that the disease had spread to three lymph nodes. He was prescribed six months of chemotherapy treatment, which he began at a Baltimore hospital in April.

Mancini revealed his condition in a first-person essay in The Players Tribune on April 28, speaking at length with reporters about it a day later. He said he had begun jogging and doing light workouts to maintain his weight during treatment.

The Orioles and Mancini are both optimistic that he will make a full recovery, but they expect him to miss the entire 2020 season if it resumes.