O's minor league Player of the Year Trey Mancini enjoying his first FanFest

Trey Mancini probably knew the questions were coming. He is a first baseman who was the Orioles' 2015 minor league Player of the Year, taking the Brooks Robinson Award. Now the club may be losing a first baseman in Chris Davis.

Has Mancini followed the media reports? Is he ready to compete for a big league job at first?

"I follow it just like a casual observer would," Mancini said. "I don't get too down or happy about that until it's over. He's an incredible player and the Orioles would like to re-sign him, I'm sure.

It feels great, he said, to be mentioned as Davis' possible replacement.

"I think I have the ability to be a major league baseball player," Mancini said. "To hear my name along with Christian (Walker), too. He's a really, really good player and I've gotten to know him. So it's cool to be part of the conversation there."

This past season, Mancini hit a combined .341/.375/.563 with 43 doubles, six triples, 21 home runs and 89 RBIs in 136 games between Double-A Bowie and Single-A Frederick. He led all Orioles minor leaguers in batting average (.341), home runs (21) and RBIs (89), and won the Eastern League batting title with an adjusted .330 batting average.

"Yeah, 2015 was definitely a good year. My goal going into the year was to really improve myself as a player, be a good teammate and be part of a winning team. I think I did well in every aspect of that," he said.

Mancini said one possible origin for his big season came during spring training. O's vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson helped him make what turned out to be some major changes.

"I've made a lot of (batting) adjustments every year and this year was the biggest one," Mancini said. "Brady saw one of my at-bats, pulled me to the side and pretty much overhauled my swing for the most part. I was spread out in my stance and now I'm standing straight up and have a big balance point when the pitcher is winding up. I think it helps the trajectory of the ball when I hit. It was huge for me."

Today he's at FanFest for the first time.

"It's incredible, just a great event," he said. "I just wasn't expecting this many people. It is really cool to see how many people are here in December and that support the O's and are diehard fans."