Canha's Grand Slam Proves Brewers Landed The Biggest Bat At The Trade Deadline

If you think back to the Trade Deadline this year, it was a tough market for hitting. There's a weak crop of hitters who will be free agents this offseason that made sense to move and most of the clear sellers didn't have much in the way of good hitters to trade to begin with. Still, in a market devoid of hitting, the Brewers got the best hitter moved at the Trade Deadline.

It was said that "there's no .900 OPS masher available" this year that would be an instant impact in any lineup. There were a lot of role players and some solid starters but no stars at the plate. Yes Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer moved, but the pitching market is a completely different animal.

The Brewers were one of the teams that desperately needed more offense, however, which made a weak hitting market tough to navigate. Yet, first year Brewers GM Matt Arnold navigated those waters like an experienced captain and came away with the best performing hitter that moved at the 2023 Trade Deadline.

Brewers outfielder Mark Canha has been the highest performing hitter of any player moved at the 2023 Trade Deadline.

Mark Canha's incredible go ahead grand slam on Saturday night against the Nationals, followed by an epic bat flip, will put him down in Brewers lore forever. His big night also helped put him over the top as the biggest bat acquired at the Trade Deadline this year.

Since joining the Brewers, Canha is hitting .313/.397/.481 with five homers, 26 RBIs, and an .878 OPS. Maybe there was no .900 OPS masher available, but Canha is pretty darn close to that mark.

Compared to all the other hitters that were big names that moved at the Trade Deadline, Canha's numbers are simply better than everyone else's.

• Canha: .313/.397/.481, 5 homers, 26 RBIs, .897 OPS, 139 OPS+

• Jake Burger: .303/.357/.510, 7 homers, 20 RBIs, .866 OPS, 133 OPS+

• Jeimer Candelario: .237/.324/.449, 5 homers, 16 RBIs, .773 OPS, 106 OPS+

• Josh Rojas: .293/.350/.424, 3 homers, 11 RBIs, .774 OPS, 117 OPS+

Jake Burger of the Marlins comes closest but Canha still tops him in every category except home runs.

Canha has posted the best batting average, best OPS, best OPS+, and most RBIs among the top hitters moved at the Trade Deadline, which means Mark Canha is simply the biggest bat that was acquired.

Considering when the trade was made, Canha was having a bit of a down year and his addition wasn't very thrilling to the fanbase at the time, this is a remarkable reality. He was a guy that was supposed to be around league average as a hitter and just improve the outfield enough to where right field wasn't a black hole in the lineup. Instead, he's become a hitting machine and an impact hitter.

The Brewers weren't declared "Trade Deadline winners" by anybody, and most thought Milwaukee's additions were unspectacular and middle of the road type moves. We were even one of them, nobody around here is complaining about being proven wrong in this way.

Canha's grand slam on Saturday was the biggest moment of his tenure in Milwaukee so far. Hopefully he'll have some more big moments down the stretch and into October.