- The Washington Times - Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Six weeks after he had a malignant tumor removed from his colon, Baltimore Orioles star Trey Mancini revealed he has stage 3 colon cancer.

Mancini, 27, left the team just before Major League Baseball put a halt to spring training in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. He said Orioles team doctors discovered the tumor in March from giving him an endoscopy and colonoscopy while looking into a possible diagnosis of celiac disease.

“My treatment will take six months — every two weeks for six months. If baseball returns in 2020, it will probably be without me,” Mancini wrote in an article for The Players’ Tribune.

Mancini said he started chemotherapy at a Baltimore hospital on April 13. He thanked the team doctors, his teammates and his girlfriend, Sara, for their support.

He also discussed going to a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Nobody is allowed to come in with me, and that’s completely fine by me,” he wrote. “I don’t want anybody else being put at risk — people that are close to me and that I love, and other people in the hospital. You just never know. COVID-19 has spread so quickly. I’m definitely trying to follow all the protocols, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because I don’t want to expose myself to anything, especially before going into chemotherapy.”

Mancini has played three full seasons for the Orioles and became one of their few reliable players and bright spots during the team’s recent losing seasons. In 2019, playing a mixture of first base and right field, Mancini posted career highs at the plate with 35 home runs, 97 RBI and an .899 on-base plus slugging (OPS) percentage. He also won the team’s Heart and Hustle Award.

• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.

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