Cananea Reyes

Benjamín "Cananea" Reyes Chávez (18 February 1937 — 11 November 1991) was a Mexican professional baseball player and manager who spent one season in 1981 as a coach for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball. He served as their interim manager for two games, becoming the first (and only) Mexican native to direct an MLB team.

As a manager in Mexico, Reyes led his teams to 12 league pennants and two Caribbean Series titles, and is considered one of the greatest Mexican managers in history.

Playing career Born in Nacozari de García, Sonora, Reyes was a third baseman, outfielder and pitcher. After playing amateur baseball and being selected to the Mexico junior national team, he abandoned his studies to pursue professional baseball and sign with the Piratas de Campeche of the Mexican Southeast League, where he batted .278 and stole 54 bases in 1964.

Reyes' one season in MLB was the strike-shortened 1981 campaign. He was named the Mariners' third-base coach by Seattle skipper Maury Wills, whom Reyes had previously served under as a third base coach with the Naranjeros de Hermosillo in 1970–71. When Willis earned a two-game suspension in April, Reyes took over as interim manager for two games against the Minnesota Twins, becoming the first Mexican-born manager in MLB history. Wills was fired early in the year, on May 6, 1981, and replaced by Rene Lachemann. Reyes finished the season, then returned to the Mexican League, where he managed the Azules de Coatzacoalcos for one season in 1982.

In 2020, Reyes was selected as the manager on the Mexican League Historic Ideal Team by a committee of baseball journalists and historians.

In February 2025, Reyes was selected by a committee of journalists as the manager for the Mexican League Centennial All-Time Team on the occasion of the league's hundredth anniversary.

Career statistics Mexican Pacific League Source: