The Milwaukee Brewers have an interesting offseason as they can make a lot of decisions that will affect the next handful of years going forward. They have one player they can accept a team option on in outfielder Mark Canha. Canha had a good offensive season split between the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers in 2023 as he finished with a .755 OPS (108 OPS) with 11 home runs, 62 RBIs and 11 stolen bases while also having a .992 fielding percentage.
Mark Cahna signed a two-year, $26.5 million with the New York Mets prior to the 2022 season with a team option for the 2024 season for $11.5 million. The Brew Crew can decide to accept it or pay a $2 million buyout and allow Canha to become an unrestricted free agent. But what should general manager Matt Arnold do? Let’s take a deeper dive into this.
Argument for Re-signing Mark Canha
Mark Canha is a cheap option for the Milwaukee Brewers to re-sign and agree to the club option. With the Brewers having an estimated $104 million in payroll already, Canha’s contract is not a lot of money to add for his production.
As a veteran leader for this team, Canha could be a solid player to be starting corner outfielder or play some first base/designated hitter. There is definitely room on this roster for a solid above-average hitter that can provide some pop at the plate and play a serviceable defense. The old saying is there is no such thing as a bad contract and that’s exactly what this is.
Argument against Re-signing Mark Canha
At 35 years old when Opening Day 2024 hits, returning an older player takes away some at-bats from a young player. This team has a lot of outfielders already on their potential Opening Day roster as they have Christian Yelich, Sal Frelick, Tyrone Taylor, Garrett Mitchell and Joey Weimer. With first base being locked up with Rowdy Tellez, where can the at-bats come from?
Paying $11.5 million for a player who finished with a 2.0 Baseball Reference WAR also is not great. The buyout is only $2 million to swallow instead of paying $11.5 million for him to play. That is a lot of money and with a team like Milwaukee that can look at finding some better hitters and adding to this postseason team, Mark Canha may not be that guy to step up and have a major season.
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