KC Royals are making a mistake not playing Mark Canha everyday

While the death spiral that the Kansas City Royals seemed locked into in the middle of April has been pulled out of, and Kansas City appears to have righted the ship, not everything is perfect inside of Kauffman Stadium.

Despite winning six of their last seven games heading into Monday’s off day, the Royals offense is still far from a work of art. What’s confounding, especially knowing just how hard scoring runs has been at times this year, is why manager Matt Quatraro doesn’t seem to be using one of his best weapons as often as he should.

Quatraro is especially missing the boat on one important and potent KC Royals weapon in the way he’s using Mark Canha. The slugger has managed to be quite impressive when he’s in the lineup. However, that he’s not in the lineup more is frustrating as Quartraro seems to be sticking with a standard platoon situation, sitting Canha against right-handed pitchers.

Kansas City already missed out on what Canha has to offer when he was on the IL in the middle of April (his weeks away coinciding with the Royals’ offensive struggles quite a bit) and since his return, he’s been used very sparingly. 

He returned to the lineup on April 20 and went 2-for-4 with an RBI, but then after getting extra rest with an off day on April 21, served as only a pinch hitter on the 22nd. He then sat on the 23rd, started the 24th and got another hit, then sat on the 25th and was lifted for a pinch hitter on the 26th. 

The pattern is easy to pick out. Quatraro is doing everything he can to make sure Canha doesn’t face righties. Which would make some sense except for one thing. The outfielder and first baseman doesn’t really have platoon numbers over his career.

The KC Royals must stop wasting Mark Canha’s bat

In fact, over 11 seasons, Canha has a .246/.336/.428 slash line versus lefties and a .252/.356/.406 versus righties. He also has far more plate appearances versus righties than lefties in his career.

Odder still is that he isn’t struggling against right handed hurlers this season when he’s allowed to face them. In his limited opportunities so far in 2025 he’s got a very respectable .286/.375/.357 and a 116 wRC+ against righties. 

Granted he is tattooing lefties at a far more impress clip, posting a .417/.429/.500 slashline and a 158 wRC+ against southpaws, but no one is advocating he not face them.

One would hope that the real explanation here is that Quatraro is bringing him back from injury slowly and will eventually make him the every day player. That’s even more a no-brainer considering that the other outfielders on the KC Royals are not exactly off to scorching Aprils.

Kansas City’s manager needs to adjust and stop going with a straight platoon for Mark Canha so that the offense can really hit its stride.