The San Francisco Giants are just four games out of the NL's third Wild Card spot, so there was no reason not to make an upgrade ahead of Tuesday's 6:00 P.M. EST trade deadline. They did just that on Tuesday evening, as they swapped a minor-league pitcher for a Detroit Tigers outfielder.
The Giants got tenth-year veteran Mark Canha, via ESPN's Kiley McDaniel.
“RHP Eric Silva is headed from the Giants to the Tigers, per source,” McDaniel reported. “Mark Canha is the other end of that trade.”
Silva is a Double-A hurler with a 4-2 record and 4.35 ERA, with two saves and one hold across 41.1 innings pitched this season. Canha, on the other hand, has been in the big leagues since 2015. The California native is slashing .231/.337/.350 with seven homers and 38 RBI this season.
Canha couldn't be happier to be headed back to northern California, via The San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser.
“Mark Canha tells me, ‘I’m coming home! I’m over the moon about this. I got lucky,'” Slusser tweeted.
Will Canha help San Francisco's playoff push?
The Giants added some much-needed juice to their lineup
Going into Tuesday's games, San Francisco ranked 13th in the league with a .245 batting average. However, the team's hitting leaders haven't played enough games to be eligible as statistical leaders, so the highest average on the team technically belongs to third baseman Matt Chapman at .242.
Canha, on the other hand, has a career .248/.348/.416 slash line, with an average of 11 homers and 41 RBI per season. The 35-year-old may platoon with left fielder Michael Conforto, who's hitting .225 with 10 homers and 40 RBI in 83 games.
However, Canha's contract runs out at the end of the season, which makes this a surprising move from the Giants' perspective. After offloading Jorge Soler, Luke Jackson, and Alex Cobb, the organization seemed to be thinking more about the future. However, giving up a pitching prospect for possibly two months of Canha shows that the team still wants to compete over the stretch run.
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