SURPRISE, Ariz. — Life comes at you fast, sometimes. Saturday afternoon, Mark Canha was playing with his kids in the backyard, pondering if he’d get a call to continue his 10-year big league career.
Sunday morning, he was celebrating his 37th birthday as the newest member of the Texas Rangers.
After surveying the market and their meager remaining financial resources, the Rangers signed Canha to a minor league contract with an invite to spring training. He becomes the leading candidate to be their extra right-handed bat. The Rangers previously had interest in both Austin Hays and Miguel Anduar, but both signed guaranteed big league deals worth at least $4 million.
The last two seasons have been challenging for Canha, a discriminating hitter with some pop. After a six-year stretch in which he had a .364 OBP and .790 OPS, his career took a sharp downturn that included being designated for assignment and ultimately released last year, both firsts for him. Canha slashed just .212/.272/.265/.537 in 125 plate appearances with the Royals last year. He was limited by an adductor strain after running into a wall and later dealt with tennis elbow inflammation. He was at home in Phoenix for the last six weeks of the season.
Rangers
“I think Mark Canha is still in there,” Canha said. “I hit the 10-year mark on service time last year, so was kind of a cool thing to do and then, I’d never been DFA’d before, so when that happens, it changes your mindset a little bit. I went into the offseason needing to think about some things. I needed to reflect on it and to see what I want to do. And then spring training was coming around and my natural instinct just kicked in; it’s still in there, might as well keep going.”
It’s not like Canha was just sitting around all offseason. He continued to train and hit. He just wasn’t sure if he was doing it for maintenance or if a team would call.
With the Rangers having two left-handed-hitting starting outfielders in Evan Carter and Brandon Nimmo, they’d like to have a little more insurance on the bench as right-handed options to pinch hit or occasionally spell one of the two. Alejandro Osuna is also left-handed. The bench options are limited to Sam Haggerty, a switch-hitter who faces only lefties, and Michael Helman.
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