SURPRISE, Ariz. -- On Saturday evening, Mark Canha was playing in the backyard with his wife and kids at their house in Phoenix.
Then, his agent texted. The Rangers had called. Could he be in Surprise on Sunday?
“I said, ‘All right, it’s go time, let’s go to start Spring Training,'” Canha told reporters in the Rangers' clubhouse on Sunday morning, which was conveniently his birthday.
Shortly before he spoke to reporters, the Rangers announced that they were signing the 37-year-old outfielder to a Minor League deal with an invite to big league Spring Training. Canha spent the 2025 season with the Royals, hitting .212 in 46 MLB games, though he landed on the injured list twice with a left abductor strain and left tennis elbow. He was released on Aug. 21.
“I think Mark Canha is still in there,” he said. “I'd never been DFAed before; so when that happens, it changes your mindset a little bit. I went into the offseason with a mindset of, 'No. 1, I need to think about some things. I need to reflect on this and see what I want to do.' Spring Training came around and my natural instinct kicked in and like, well, it's still in there. So might as well keep going.”
The outfielder is just a year removed from a productive MLB season. In 2024 with the Tigers and Giants, he slashed .242/.344/.346 with 101 wRC+. That doesn’t fly off the page, but it would definitely be an improvement for a Rangers offense that has struggled mightily over the last two seasons.
Canha specifically is a helpful addition for a Rangers lineup that is left-handed-hitting heavy at the moment.
In the outfield, the starters are Wyatt Langford (right-handed hitter), Evan Carter (left-handed hitter) and Brandon Nimmo (LHH). The bench options include Michael Helman (RHH), Sam Haggerty (switch-hitter) and Alejandro Osuna (LHH).
“He's a right-handed corner outfield bat that could help neutralize the lineup because we have a lot of left-handers,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “We have Joc [Pederson] DHing. We have Evan Carter and Nimmo, too, so we're trying to figure out how we can complement some of these left-handed bats that are really good. We also have other right-handed bats that are trying to make the team. He's done it really well for a long time. So his path to make the team would be hitting left-handers and being an option off the bench at the corner.”