Veteran first baseman Trey Mancini has opted out of his minor league contract with the Diamondbacks, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Arizona evidently opted not to select him onto the MLB roster and he has returned to free agency. Utility infielder Nicky Lopez did the same this morning.
Mancini, 33, played three months with Triple-A Reno after signing an offseason non-roster deal. He’s had a nice season, batting .308/.373/.522 with 16 homers through 74 games. While that’s in a very hitter-friendly setting, Mancini has above-average numbers overall and had a particularly big showing in June.
The D-Backs have a first base/designated hitter tandem of Josh Naylor and Pavin Smith, leaving them without much room to accommodate Mancini. Smith has slumped since a scorching April, but he’s still carrying a .260/.369/.447 slash for the season. Arizona’s bench already skews right-handed, so Mancini would have been an imperfect fit as a bench bat.
Mancini will now look elsewhere for his first big league opportunity since 2023. He hasn’t been especially productive at the MLB level since being traded by the Orioles at the ’22 deadline. His numbers in Reno will at least allow him to find minor league interest elsewhere, presumably with a club that has a better path to first base playing time.
Trey- Have your agent call the White Sox.
Red Sox. Reference the article from 4 days ago here on mlbtr. craig breslow assessing the 1st base market.
Mancini knows the division and the park.
At least a fallback stashed at AAA.
Good luck, Trey! Hope you find an opportunity somewhere.
Feel like the Phillies should look into him. He hits LHP
The Nats should DFA Bell and try Mancini. He can’t do any worse.
They’re not that far away from really DFAing Bell! The only thing against Mancini nis his age…
Mancini stinks. His career was over yrs ago.
You’re aware that Mancini did undergo cancer treatment, right, robw5555?
At least he had a career.
Bell has been an unmitigated disaster!
Bell has been mostly bad for years now with a few monthly eruptions.
Lost his power and strikes out at a high rate.
It’s over.
At least Trey Mancini’s service time is 6.141 years according to baseball-reference.com. That’s longer than Darren Dreifort’s contract.
Sat out 2020 during the scamdemic at the top of his career. Watched his career swirl the toilet since.
what an idiotic comment
The Idiotic things MAGAT zombies say…
I’d bet anything you still wear a mask in public lol.
Sometimes I’ll wear a mask on the plane. It almost certainly won’t kill me, but I’d rather not have a cold. I bet you don’t wash your hands.
He probably took 5 boosters to prevent the harmless cold.
There’s so much wrong with your comment but mostly he sat out 2020 because he was undergoing chemo!
Amazing how a baseball oriented website can attract such a varied assortment of cruel imbeciles.
Giants
A lot of teams are looking for upgrades at 1B, right? Why not take a chance at catching lightening in a bottle before the deadline? If it doesn’t work out, DFA Mancini and acquire a 1B via trade.
Pads could use an extra bat.
I’d normally agree diphthong but I think signing him would hurt team morale. Another Gurriel, Hayward, Joe, plus the two washed guys from last year Broomstick and one other I forget rn Gary Sanchez and separately, sorry, B Reynolds with PIT eating half salary. I know there are skeptics on him.
Feel like Bryan Reynolds would rake if he were batting amongst Manny, Tati (someone please wake him up), CroneZone, Arraez, XBo (recently awakened) and Merrill. Having a down year but PIT is a clown show.
This will turn out to be about as much as the Ms can to afford from ownership’s reported allowance to upgrade 1B…