Baseball is a game predicated on marketing their star talent, and often use large market teams to boost ratings on Nationally televised games.
However, lost somewhere in the shuffle is always the little guy. That can either be a team (see the Oakland A’s or Tampa Bay Rays) or a player getting little to no recognition despite being amongst the best that the game has to offer.
That was on full display in 2019 as one of the game’s better hitters had the disadvantage of being one of the game’s worst teams. That player is Orioles slugger Trey Mancini.
Mancini is a weird player. Not weird in a bad way, but just a type of player that we’ve grown accustomed to not seeing in modern-day baseball. In an era where the game has become almost position-less due to all of the shifting that goes on, we tend to lose sight of the player who doesn’t have a defined position –– players like Trey Mancini.
But what about Mancini makes him one of the more underrated hitters in the game?
For starters, it could be the fact that he absolutely hammers the baseball –– as shown in this chart from Baseball Savant.
When all of your expected stats rank in the top 82 percent or better, odds are you’re having a great season. But let’s also take a look at Mancini’s counting stats and see how they measure with the rest of the American League.
Mancini’s 132 wRC+ ranked in a tie for 17th in the American League, with Rafael Devers of the Red Sox and Yuli Gurriel of the Astros. While the media was talking about the offensive explosions of the latter two, Mancini was just kind of existing; quietly putting up monster numbers.
On top of that, the 27-year-old ranked tied for 15th in the AL in wOBA (.373) with MVP finalist Marcus Semien, was 11th in home runs (35), tied for 20th in fWAR (3.6), and was also tied with Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres for 14th in slugging percentage with a .535.
Overall, he rounded out the season slashing .291/.364/.535 (.899 OPS), with a 132 wRC+, a 135 OPS+, and a wOBA of .373. Oh, and he wasn’t even his team’s All-Star Game representative, as left-handed pitcher John Means got the selection.
Only time will tell on if Trey Mancini is as good as he showcased in 2019. After all, he is just one year removed from being a below-average hitter (91 wRC+, .308 wOBA). That being said, the level at which he hit the ball would indicate that 2018 was more of an anomaly than last season was.
2020 should be another exciting year for Major League Baseball, and it could be another step towards achieving deserved recognition for Trey Mancini. While the Orioles have to make a decision soon regarding if he’s in their future plans or not, they can go to sleep knowing they have one of the American League’s best hitters under control until the end of the 2022 season.
