A’s Canha among those adjusting to life without video

“I was doing something to look at it from an outside perspective, instead of being present within it while it was happening.”

Mark Canha, A’s outfielder, on his former reliance on video

MESA, Ariz. — Mark Canha, who describes himself as “kind of a hitting nerd,” played last season without a familiar study tool.

Major League Baseball’s restrictions on ingame video use in 2020 marked a sudden change for players used to accessing clubhouse video rooms for instant feedback. Hitters, in particular, protested. Boston’s J.D. Martinez and Cubs shortstop Javier Báez were among those lamenting the change. Canha, the A’s outfielder, called it an “extremely difficult adjustment.”

“Certain guys use video, certain guys don’t,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “There were a fair amount of guys that were frustrated without having video because they like to be able to use that as a resource, go back and see potentially if they did something wrong mechanically, if they

got a bad call, something like that.”

Already weighing restrictions on ingame video in light of the Astros’ signstealing scandal, MLB closed video rooms as a health protocol when it resumed last summer amid the pandemic. This season brings a reprieve. According to the Associated Press, MLB will allow ingame video on dugout iPads starting Opening Day, with catchers’ signals edited out to prevent signstealing.

Whether Canha plugs back in will be interesting. Hitting this offseason, Canha said, he altered his habits by consulting video less than ever.

“I haven’t looked at all at video of myself as I’m building up my swings and stuff,” Canha said last weekend. “Because I’m trying to rely more now on feel and physical feedback rather than looking at video all the time, which I’ve done in the past.”

Canha was one of many hitters whose numbers dipped in the short 2020 season. After posting career bests with home runs (26) and OPS (.913) in 2019, Canha compiled a .795 OPS with five homers last year. His walk rate (15.2%) was a career high but his strikeout rate (22.2%) was his highest in three seasons. He hit .215 in September and was 4for25 in the postseason.

Canha did not blame those numbers solely on lack of ingame video. But he did wonder if it was a factor.

“It’s not like I was super heavily reliant on video before,” Canha said. “I would do it from time to time just to kind of check up and make sure things looked OK on my swing. And I realized, I don’t know how much that was helping me last year.

“You have to, I think now, be good at everything. You have to be able to watch video. You have to be able to have good feel. You have to be able to understand how your body feels and not just what it looks like on video. And I’m trying to work on that.”

Melvin, a fellow Cal alum, describes Canha as “a deep thinker.” Canha said another influence was a book on hitting by Shawn Green, in which the former outfielder “talks a lot about being present.”

“Before, I would hit and then be like, ‘OK, let’s go check the camera, check the tape and see what it looks like,’ ” Canha said. “I was doing something to look at it from an outside perspective, instead of being present within it while it was happening. That’s kind of the essence of what I’m trying to be better at.”

Canha did remain a presence in the A’s lineup last season. He led the team in onbase percentage and ranked second in RBIs (33). The former makes him an option for atbats in the leadoff spot this year, Melvin said. Canha has batted primarily fourth or fifth the past two seasons but said he likes the idea of hitting in the first inning, before the opposing starter has settled into a rhythm.

In August, Canha said he “definitely was utilizing video” ingame in 2019. His OPS that year in innings 49, when he typically would have at least one atbat to analyze, was .981, compared with .878 last season.

“I’d like to maintain the ability to do both — be good at watching film and good at feeling when it’s not there,” Canha said. “I think (there’s) a deeper conversation about technology in this somewhere, where it’s helpful but also at times, we don’t want to rely on it.”