{"id":153971,"date":"2022-12-10T18:42:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T18:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cubs-have-interest-in-trey-mancini\/"},"modified":"2022-12-10T18:42:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T18:42:14","slug":"cubs-have-interest-in-trey-mancini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/cubs-have-interest-in-trey-mancini\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Have Interest In Trey Mancini"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Cubs have interest in free agent first baseman\/outfielder Trey Mancini<\/strong>according to Bruce Levine of 670 The Score<\/a>. Mancini is a free agent for the first time after a number of years with the Orioles and a brief stint with the Astros in 2022. A $10MM mutual option wasn’t picked up at the end of the season, and Mancini took a $250K buyout instead to hit the open market.<\/p>\n

There hasn’t been a lot of reported interest in Mancini’s services to date this off-season, although a number of teams could use a bat like his so he figures to have a lot of potential fits.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old is coming off a solid platform year. He was hitting .268\/.347\/.404 with ten home runs at the deadline with Baltimore, before they traded their long time fan favorite to the Astros. He scuffled a bit down the stretch in Houston, hitting just .176\/.258\/.364 with eight home runs in 186 plate appearances. It certainly wasn’t an ideal lead in to a trip to the open market, and a spike in strikeouts didn’t help, but he can still point to unfortunate .191 BABIP as something that should even out over time.<\/p>\n

Mancini has been one of the feel good stories around baseball in recent years, following his successful return from a Stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis in 2020. He missed the entire 2020 season, but has was a productive hitter both before and after for Baltimore, hitting .270\/.334\/.463 with 117 home runs in almost 3,000 plate appearances.<\/p>\n

Defensively, he’s split time fairly evenly between the outfield and first base, but was more often that not utilized in the DH spot in 2022. He’s yielded -24 Outs Above Average in around 2,500 innings in the corner outfield spots, but has been worth a more positive five OAA at first base in just over 2,000 innings of work there.<\/p>\n

1B\/DH seems to be where he’d spend the bulk of his time if he did in fact wind up with the Cubs. they have Cody Bellinger<\/strong>, Ian Happ<\/strong> and Seiya Suzuki<\/strong> penciled in to handle most of the outfield reps, but 1B\/DH is open with Matt Mervis<\/strong> and Alfonso Rivas<\/strong> the in-house candidates there. Mervis broke out in 2022 and could well be their long-term answer, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see them add a more experienced option as well. The team has had discussions with former Met Dominic Smith<\/strong> recently, while the likes of Matt Carpenter<\/strong>, Brandon Drury<\/strong>, Brandon Belt<\/strong>or Eric Hosmer<\/strong> on the trade market could all make some sense as options.<\/p>\n

As Levine notes, the Cubs priorities for additions remain elsewhere though. They’re heavily involved in the shortstop market and have been interested in both Carlos Correa<\/strong> and Dansby Swanson<\/strong>. Levine points to starting pitcher and catcher as the other priorities. They did just sign Jameson Taillon<\/strong> to a four-year, $68MM deal, but it seems they’re keen to add another, with Japanese star Kodai Senga<\/strong> someone they’ve had interest in.<\/p>\n

Their need for a catcher comes as no surprise after seeing their long-time backstop Willson Contreras<\/strong> sign with the rival Cardinals. Christian Vazquez<\/strong> is the top free agent catcher remaining, but Oakland’s Sean Murphy<\/strong> is available, while the Blue Jays could well move one of their young backstops \u2013 Gabriel Moreno<\/strong>, Danny Jansen<\/strong> or Alejandro Kirk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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