The Mets are signing a right-handed pitcher Canning griffin according to multiple reports, a one-year contract.
Canning’s deal will be worth $4.25 million, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
The 28-year-old Canning, who pitched in his fifth season in the big league last year, allowed an American League-leading 99 earned runs in 171.2 innings pitched for a 5.19 ERA (5.26 FIP) with 66 walks for a 1.398 WHIP in 32 games (31 starts).
Of course, he still managed to strike out 130 batters that year. But for Canning, that was a down year in that department, as 6.8 strikeouts per nine innings represented a career low. After an injury sidelined him for the entire 2022 season, he pitched to a 4.32 ERA and 1.236 WHIP in 24 games (22 starts) the following year and recorded 139 strikeouts in 127 innings for a rate of 9.9 Ks per nine in 2023 .
The move bolsters the Mets’ depth at the end of the rotation Jose Butto, Paul Blackbrand And Tylor Megill all candidates to be a starter or move to the bullpen.
During the MLB Winter Meetings in early December, president of baseball operations David Sterns said the club will let the aforementioned trio all stretch out this offseason before potentially landing them in bullpen roles.
“For guys like Jose, the easiest thing they can do in the offseason is to prepare … like they’re going to be stretched out,” Stearns said at the time. “Once you’re stretched, we can always shorten you. And so Jose is going to stretch out… We’ll probably stretch him out a little bit once he gets to camp and then we’ll see what our roster looks like.
Three pitches make up the bulk of Canning’s range, with a four-seam fastball (average 93.4 mph) making up 37.6 percent of his pitches, followed by a changeup (88.6 mph) at 26.7 percent and a slider (87.7 mph) at 24 percent. He used his fourth pitch, a curveball, slightly less in 2024 than the year before, at 10.3 percent.
Canning’s most effective pitching over the past two seasons has been his changeup, with a 28.8 percent whiff rate and a weighted on-base average of .318 in 2024.
He pitched his entire career for the Los Angeles Angels before being dealt to the Atlanta Braves after the season Jorge Soler. The Braves didn’t tender him and let him hit free agency.
Overall, Canning has a career 4.78 ERA and 1.333 WHIP pitched in 508 innings in 94 starts (with another five appearances out of the bullpen). He struck out 483 batters and walked 183 (2.64 ratio).
He won the AL Gold Glove in 2020, his second season in the majors.
