Four days after Trey Mancini detailed his diagnosis and treatments after having a cancerous tumor removed from his colon in March, his Baltimore Orioles teammates joined him on a Zoom call on Saturday.
Their message was simple for a player who wears No. 16 on the field: #F16HT
The guys surprised Trey. #F16HT pic.twitter.com/2mruiaDXa5
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 2, 2020
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, infielders Chris Davis, Hanser Alberto and Rio Ruiz, catcher Chance Sisco and outfielders DJ Stewart and Austin Hays were just some of those who were on the call.
Each held up a sign reading #F16HT for Mancini, who wrote in The Players’ Tribune that his colon cancer was stage 3 (with stage 4 being the most severe). He wrote that his chemotherapy treatments, which began in April, are scheduled every two weeks for six months, so he doesn’t expect to play this year even if the season begins at some point amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In a conference call on Wednesday, Mancini said the surgery was performed the day spring training was put on hold due to the pandemic.
“I got lucky because they stopped doing a lot of surgeries right after I got mine done,” Mancini said. “Like the week after, they reduced the amount of surgeries they were doing. It was just six days from my diagnosis. I feel so lucky in that regard.
“If I didn’t have the medical care that we do with the Orioles, I would not have caught this in time. I’m pretty confident it would have progressed to another stage, which would have been pretty devastating.”
With the surgery in the past and his chemotherapy underway, Mancini is thinking about the future. And on Saturday, his teammates reminded him they are there for him.
Information from ESPN’s Jesse Rogers was used in this report.