Spring training invite for former NY Mets player might be his last chance

The Texas Rangers are collecting former New York Mets players like it’s 1997 and the Beanie bubble hasn’t burst yet. Trading for Brandon Nimmo to reunite him with Jacob deGrom wasn’t purposeful nor is their latest addition, a spring training invite for Mark Canha.

In one and a half years with the Mets, Canha became a popular player for some different reasons. A foodie with a fun personality and attitude, he was a veteran presence for the Mets in 2022 and again at the start of 2023 who deepened their lineup.

Canha was one of several players the Mets ended up trading in the summer of 2023, sending him to the Milwaukee Brewers for minor leaguer Justin Jarvis. He had maybe the best attitude at the trade deadline. Rather than plead for the front office to let them try to piece a run together, he understood the team should have simply played better if they wanted to stay intact.

Ex-Mets OF Mark Canha joins the Rangers in what could be his last chance

Canha, conventionally, turns 37 on the day of the signing/invite. His hot finish with the Brewers in 2023 was the end of his best days. He played often in 2024 with the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants but had an OPS just under .700.

Last year was more of a sign of the end with Canha playing in only 46 games for the Kansas City Royals. He hasn’t shown much power at all, hitting only one home run in those 125 trips to the plate for Kansas City. The year prior, in his final 85 plate appearances for the Giants, he also went homerless.

The Rangers might’ve been one of the last teams fans expected Canha to land with. From San Jose and out of Berkeley University, his political leanings splash a lot of cold water onto the idea of who you cast your vote for mattering a whole lot when it comes to what city you play sports in. Back in December, politics entered the arena as to what might’ve dismantled the Mets this offseason with Mike Francesa being the first to mention a political difference of opinion between Nimmo and Francisco Lindor. Fans found it appropriate that Nimmo ended up with the Rangers considering his political beliefs leaning to the right. How much is actually led to certain offseason decisions will remain a mystery.

Surely, if Nimmo can survive in New York all of these years with his political beliefs, Canha landing with the Rangers with his is a nothing burger, maybe a nothing slider right off the White Castle menu.

It’s going to take a lot of things to go right for Canha and wrong for others for him to crack the Rangers roster. The Rangers aren’t punting the year. If nothing else, a strong spring might be able to catapult him elsewhere onto someone’s roster with a greater need.