In a season filled with mounting losses and dwindling on-field storylines, Trey Mancini is one of the few Orioles actually performing well. He leads the Orioles in most of the important hitting categories: wRC+ (135), wOBA (.374), on-base percentage (.353), slugging percentage (.547) and isolated power (.241). His 1.3 wins above replacement (FanGraphs' version) is also the best among O's position players, just ahead of Pedro Severino (1.0).
Calling Mancini the Orioles' best regular isn't exactly high praise considering the makeup of the rebuilding roster, but it's still a nice honor. Mancini made his big-league debut back in 2016 as a relatively overlooked first-base prospect, and the Orioles ended up finding a role for him in the outfield. His 118 wRC+ and 1.7 fWAR in his rookie season (2017) were welcome surprises.
Then 2018 happened. Just about everything that could go wrong for the Orioles last season did, and that included Mancini finishing the year with a 93 wRC+ and an fWAR of -0.2. To be fair, he did suffer a knee injury early in the season when he slid into an unpadded section of brick wall in foul territory in left field. He then only missed a couple of games and dealt with any lingering pain for the rest of the year. It's unknown precisely how much the injury hindered him, but he was noticeably better in the second half (first half: 79 wRC+; second half: 110 wRC+).
