Mark Canha is (Still, and More Urgently Than Ever) the Perfect Twins Free-Agent Target

[Blyleven2011]

The writer gives way to much credit for this FO being creative ...

Being creative after all the better players are signed and now you begin the dumpster diving in free agency is not creative because the prices have dropped  , well if your smart you have to realize the talent has dropped significantlyas well ...

Why didn't the FO be bold and creative when they signed santana last off season and give him a base salary with incentives and a club option for a second season with a base salary and incentives  , santana was fun to watch at first base , this year our pitchers era's are going up...

Because the talent that mostly remains in free agency is the lesser talent  , it only makes sense to go with our younger players who are just as capable to play the game  as the remaining free agents are ...

[LA Vikes Fan]

1 hour ago, JD-TWINS said:

Seems to me that Martin and Miranda generate same or better offense at like positions. Castro & Martin in corner OF spots v. lefties. I’m usually very pro veteran for depth but it seems that at 35 and peak year 6 years ago (2019) the Team should fill spot with youth or via trade for a REAL contributor (maybe just a 1B)?.

Grichuk, to me, made most sense for the cost….signed this week for $5M.

Canha’s defensive flexibility and MLB experience are attractive though. Miranda has a “reverse splits” bat so he isn’t very effective against LH pitching. Also, there needs to be an alternative at 1B…………..I’m hoping they can scrape by a couple months and maybe Keaschall could fill that roll?

Hard to see how Canha is any better than the younger alternatives like Miranda, Larnach, Castro or even Martin or Julien. Add in the fact that at 35 Canha is who he is, whereas the others still have at least some room to improve (or sink down).  This strikes me as the kind of move we've criticized a lot in the past, signing an average veteran past his prime to a cheap contract instead of going with the guys you have coming up. Sometimes it works like with Santana, but usually you get more of a Joey Gallo result.

I'm going to say the same thing I said last year. Play the "young" guys and see what you have for at least the first half of the season. To me that means a consistent lineup with Lewis at 3B, Mirnada at 1B, Larnach in LF, Wallner in RF, either Lee or Julien at 2B, Castro as a super utility playing 2B and LF (occasional CF, although I would play Keirsey there) and Martin as a RH OF in spot duty.  That includes hitting Larnach, Miranda, and Wallner against LH pitching. Change this only if we can trade for a young, controllable RH bat for the OF or 1B. Don't sign a vet past his prime as a stopgap. You can augment at the trade deadline. Normally that sounds like a pipe dream for the Twins but with new ownership we might actually be able to take on salary and get that one or two guy jolt we need. 

The Twins aren't one stopgap average vet away from contention.  This team only contends if the younger core continues to improve and performs. I think that's a good bet but it is much more of a bet than a certainty. You can see the division improving; we need to find out what we have and the best (and only) way to do that is to invest playing time with the younger core. We are going to fall behind if we don't. 

[Doctor Gast]

Splits on Canha last year OPS, vs RHP .658, vs LHP .774. Canha as a bench player is fine, but not used as Margot; I'd take Canha over Gasper. If we can pick him up for $2M, ok, Although I'd like to keep Paddack, I'd be ok trading him if we need to. But not any further than that.

[T.O.]

3 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

and on a side note does this site constantly cause your browser to crash?

I use Firefox on Windows 10. For several weeks I'll be scrolling and suddenly it stops and the scroll bar on right is gone. I have to hit refresh to get it back. One time it happened six times in less than a minute. The only good thing is after the refresh I'm still at same place on the page.

Other thing is when scrolling sometimes it will freeze for several seconds, scroll bar is still there. This one could be my computer although not happening with other sites.

It's never crashed the browser session.

I should try Chrome but haven't yet

[jmlease1]

Canha is only perfect in that he's likely to be cheap and leftover. I mean, there's nothing wrong with him per se, but he raises the floor (maybe) and not the ceiling. On a 1 year deal for $3-4M, he's...fine? Fairly low risk, might have a bounce back year left in him where he get the SLG% back to around .400 and lands a solid enough OPS of .740, decent defender, solid veteran.

but is that going to be better than what we could get from the younger guys, as noted above? Jose Ramirez is going to out-hit him if healthy. Michael Helman might be a better option. 

Doesn't really move the needle for me

[bean5302]

Please, sign me up for an aging 1.0 WAR player. We need it!!!!

[DJL44]

Steamer on Canha

.246/.340/.374 with below average defense. Do you think he can go 0 for 32 as a pinch hitter?

[chpettit19]

Count me amongst the "no's" on Canha. The floor is built. Stop trying to add to the floor. Add to the ceiling. If you can't add to the ceiling with a FA then don't sign one just to sign one. Make a trade or see what you have in the young guys.

The central has gotten more competitive because of young guys. Cleveland, Detroit, and KC's offenses are built on young guys. Santana in Cleveland, the corpse of Hunter Renfroe in KC, and nobody in Detroit. Those are the over 30 vets those teams have brought in (on the hitter side). Renfroe was a disaster for KC last year while Santana had the bounce back here. Detroit brought in Gleyber at the age of 28, and their over-30 vet they're looking at is Alex Bregman at the age of 31. Those teams caught, and passed, the Twins last year because they let their young guys go. And they have more coming. They let them take their lumps and figure it out. 

Helman, Keirsey, Martin, etc. don't have super high ceilings by any means, but they're no lower than Canha, Grichuk, Bader, or any of these other tail-end vets. Emma and Keaschal have significantly higher ceilings. If the Twins were willing to ever cut vet hitters I'd be less against bringing them in. But they aren't. So just stop bringing them in and ride or die with the youth you have. If you can't develop your own talent you're doomed anyway. Blame it on the budget if you want, but it's time to just let the kids play over bringing in these guys who's best, realistic hope is to be average.

[ashbury]

A waste of scarce financial resources.  Just no.

[sweetmusicviola16]

How I put it, if Canha signs here I will cheer for him. But count me as not cheering on a signing of him. I would rather see Hellman. 

[chpettit19]

Just signed Bader. Think Canha is probably off the table now.

[thelanges5]

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/02/twins-to-sign-harrison-bader.html

[TwinsDr2021]

3 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

I'm glad someone brought up the Browser crashing , mine crashes all the time  , mostly when I'm typing a post  , I thought it was just me because I'd never heard any complaints before  ...

TD we have a problem  !!!

It consistently takes closing the browser multiple times just to post. Hit Submit Reply the browser locks, I copy and paste my message close the browser and paste it back in. I have to do this for every post. After a few times, I just leave the site because it is such a bad experience. @Brock Beauchamp

[gil4]

5 hours ago, DJL44 said:

The defense is taking a downgrade, especially losing Kepler and Santana. I would prefer they add someone who is a good defender, like Bader, as a backup.

It's almost like the front office was reading here and said, "That's a great idea."

[h2oface]

Adding a league average player to the team to make the team better? Sure. Is league average even a recipe for a .500 team? Fading vet that tanked last year. Just this FO style, even when they had a larger budget. I would rather see them go with youth, even though the "youth" on the roster looks like it really isn't youth anymore. 26 and youth? Sure it is. Right. But it is a lot younger than 35ish. But hey, I just read the new beat writer declaing "best bullpen in MLB" so maybe we don't need so many runs.

[MinnInPa]

On 2/5/2025 at 9:50 AM, DJL44 said:

League average is .243

thats my point ..just average