The term “face of the franchise” is an interesting one. What exactly does it mean? Is it the most popular player on the team? The longest-tenured? Or, simply, the best? Can a franchise have more than one face, or is it something that can’t be shared? The answers to these questions might vary from team to team, but it might simply be a case of “you know it when you see it.”
If Trey Mancini wasn’t the face of the Orioles franchise, he certainly was its heart. Drafted by Baltimore in the eighth round in 2013, he debuted in the big leagues in ‘16 and became a regular in ‘17—the first of the club’s current five-year streak of losing seasons. That tenure came to an end with Monday’s three-team trade that sent the 30-year-old Mancini to Houston, ending a chapter of one of the game’s most inspirational stories.
