World Series or bust? New Detroit Tigers OF Mark Canha says 'I want it all' in 2024

Mark Canha is a veteran player.

Canha, a corner outfielder entering his age-35 season, is the type of veteran player the Detroit Tigers were searching for to help develop a young core of players on offense, namely 26-year-old Kerry Carpenter, 24-year-old Spencer Torkelson, 23-year-old Riley Greene and 22-year-old Colt Keith.

The Tigers acquired Canha in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers at the beginning of the offseason in early November, then picked up his $11.5 million option for the 2024 season.

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The nine-year MLB veteran — a seventh-round pick in the 2010 draft — has played for the Oakland Athletics (2015-21), New York Mets (2022-23) and Brewers (2023). He is a .250 hitter with 113 home runs, a 9.9% walk rate, a 20.5% strikeout rate and a .349 on-base percentage in his MLB career, spanning 924 games.

Canha is expected to fill a big role for the Tigers in 2024, both on the field and in the clubhouse.

Canha talked to the Free Press, joining this week's episode of the "Days of Roar" podcast, about his goals for the Tigers, his approach to hitting and his potential influence on young hitters. (On the podcast, Canha also discussed former teammate Corbin Burnes getting traded to the Baltimore Orioles, hitting a home run off Tarik Skubal and his love of food, which he documents on Instagram.)

WELCOME TO DETROIT: Mark Canha reinvented his approach years ago. Now, Tigers think he can help young players

What needs to be the realistic goal for the Tigers in 2024?

"I'm on a one-year deal, so I'm hoping the realistic goal is the World Series. I'm not in this for any consolation prizes or silver linings. I want it all. I honestly believe that the sky's the limit for this club. We have a good mix of young and veteran players, and it's only a matter of time before we find out how potent that mix is. I'm really excited about the young talent, and I think they could carry us. I hope to play a big role in everything, but we have an extremely young and talented team, and they showed what they could do at the end of last year. There's nothing that stands in our way if we can have an identity and if we can fulfill it. If these guys know how good they are, it's just a matter of putting it all together."

How did you find out about the trade and what was your initial reaction?

"I woke up and was playing with my kids, not really expecting anything to happen or to hear any news. My agent called me a couple of times before I picked up the phone. It was one of those things like, 'Hey, you've been traded to the Tigers.' It was out of the blue. No heads up, no indication of what was going on. But it was like, 'OK, here we go, new chapter.' You have to just roll with the punches like that as a baseball player. I'm at that weird stage in my career where I had the team option, and I didn't really know which direction it was going to go for me this offseason. It was wild, it was sudden, but you have to be flexible like that."

After trading for you, the Tigers signed four pitchers in free agency: Kenta Maeda, Jack Flaherty, Andrew Chafin and Shelby Miller. What do you think about the pitching staff as a whole?

"I think you love to see that. You love to see the team building around pitching depth. I think that's something an organization can hang their hat on. We know from being around the game so much that it's vastly important to have arms, and plenty of them. To get where we want to go, you need to see the focus on pitching depth, and it's good to see (president of baseball operations) Scott Harris and the rest of the front office putting an emphasis on that."

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In the past six seasons, from 2018-2023, there have been 155 players with at least 2,000 plate appearances. Your .364 on-base percentage ranks 23rd among those 155 players. How did you unlock your ability to get on base, and how have you been able to sustain it in an ever-changing game?

"There was a year in my career a long time ago when I was a young player trying to carve a niche for myself. I wanted to have an identity as a player, and I knew there was something missing. I made a conscious decision to swing less and try to be more selective. I knew I had a good eye, but I wasn't giving it a chance to work because I wanted to be aggressive and didn't want to strike out. I think I was afraid of getting to two strikes. There's a lot that's gone into it, but essentially, at that point in my career, I let the ball travel a little bit more and saw it for a little longer before I made a swing decision. That has proven to help me, and that's the lane I've stayed in, and that's helped me build a career. I think it's made me a productive player, at least that's what the analytics seem to point at. I notice that. It works for me, and that's how I've done it my whole career."

The Tigers hope your approach can be emulated by younger hitters on the team. What is your approach and what will you tell your new teammates?

"I have my own approach, and it works for me, and it's individual. I do think that everybody has to, to some extent, have their own approach. I can help build on top of that, but everybody is a different player. I don't think everybody has to have a .350 on-base. Some guys are going to slug a little bit more and get on base a little bit less. Some guys are going to do both. I've been a little bit more towards the on-base side. When you're a young player, you have to learn what works for you. Trying to do what I do and emulating that might not be the best thing for all guys, but I think I can help. I can help a little bit with guys being able to trust themselves and make the at-bat their own and play to their own strengths. That's what I think I'll try to get through to the young guys if I can."

I thought the Tigers did an excellent job of preparing their hitters for individual pitchers last season. Consistently implementing the plan in games while keeping individual strengths and weaknesses in mind seems to be the next step. Can you help me understand the evolution of that concept?

"It's playing to your strengths, knowing what you want to get out of this at-bat. The hardest thing about when you're game planning as a group is you go into these hitters meetings, and sometimes, we try and develop an approach for the whole team to follow. If we're going to try and get this guy's fastball up, for example as a basic plan, what if somebody's strength isn't hitting fastballs up? Then that would be kind of silly for them to do that. As an individual, you have to be able to take the information and translate it for yourself and go, OK, here's the information that we have, how can I use that to benefit me? The bottom line is, I have to go up there. I can't do what Spencer Torkelson is going to do or Kerry Carpenter is going to do because that's not my strength, so I got to dissect it and tailor it so that it's going to work for me. And Javy Báez has to do that for himself. That's the tricky part."

How would you feel about being the Tigers' leadoff hitter if the opportunity comes to you?

"I always embrace any role that I'm given. Managers will even occasionally ask, 'How do you feel about doing this or that?' I'm kind of like, 'Well, just throw me in there and let's see how I feel about it.' I'll take on any role. I like a challenge. I like to prove myself, no matter what stage. I know I've been in the league for a long time, and maybe I don't have to do that, but I want to show that I can do anything. That's always been in my DNA. Wherever they put me, I'm doing to do my best to be the best leadoff hitter or five-hole hitter or wherever I am."

But do you like leading off?

"I do like leading off. I think leading off is great when you're going well. It can be a lot of fun. When you're not going well, it can be not very fun at all. I've been on both sides of it. But I think there's an element to leading off that I like because I like getting to the starting pitcher before he's had a chance to settle into the game. I've always felt like that gives me some sort of advantage, at least in that first at-bat or second at-bat. You get maybe one or two at-bats where the pitcher maybe hasn't settled in yet, and he is susceptible to making mistakes or being a little wild. You can get a walk or an easy hit that way early in the game. That's somewhere where I think my plate discipline helps a lot."

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There are a lot of young hitters on the Tigers. Can youth be a good thing for a team?

"Definitely. I think you have to have youth, especially in today's game. The level of play is so high. There's so much high energy, especially with the rule changes with the stolen bases and the pitch clock and all that stuff. I think you need guys that can learn new tricks, not old dogs, guys that can adapt to that more quickly. We got a lot of young, athletic guys. I think that's how you play in today's game. You need the energy every day. It's a very quick, high-energy feel to the games now. They're not so slow and long. It has a youthful aspect to it, and I think you need a lot of young guys. I saw that with Milwaukee last year. When I got to Milwaukee, it was such a young team, and they played with a lot of energy. It was easy to fall into some games where you're in it at the end. You have a chance more often, it seems like. When you have an older team, I think with the Mets what I felt was it was harder to get things going on some days just because the energy, it's harder to dig down and find that when you have an older group."

One of the youngest players on the team is Colt Keith, a 22-year-old second baseman who signed a long-term contract extension before making his MLB debut. What do you think about that, and do you know anything about Colt Keith?

"I don't know anything about Colt Keith. I'm looking forward to getting to know him and seeing his skill set. I can't really have an opinion on it because I know nothing about this guy, but good for him. I look forward to getting to know him. I honestly think the younger, the better. I'm an old player. I'm going to be 35 this year. I think the more youth that we can have on the roster, bringing that energy, it can only help, as long as everybody has a good attitude and shows up to the park expecting to win and bringing something to the table, whether that's on the field or off the field or just in our mentality. That's going to help us."

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mark Canha: World Series should be goal for Detroit Tigers in 2024