The former Angel was non-tendered shortly after a trade to the Braves.

The Mets added a piece for the back end of their rotation, signing former Angels starter Griffin Canning to a one year, $4.25 million contract, with up to an additional $1 million in bonus opportunities. Canning, drafted in the second round of the 2018 draft, made 94 starts for the Angels from 2019-2024, highlighted by a Gold Glove in 2020.

After coming up in late April of 2019, he was shut down in August with elbow inflammation. After his aforementioned Gold Glove season in 2020, Canning missed part of the 2021 and all of the 2022 season with lower back issues stemming from a stress fracture. Over the next two seasons, Canning established himself as a steady piece of the Angels’ rotation, making 53 starts over the two seasons.

Canning, a ground ball pitcher whose slider is clearly his best offering, to date has put up a 4.78 ERA over his career. While Canning made more starts and threw more innings in 2024 than at any other time in his career, he showed some serious regression from 2023, with decreased fastball velocity, a lower strikeout rate, higher walk rate, and higher batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage against, without a noticeable different in BABIP. In August, Sam Blum of the Athletic wrote about how Canning was having one of the worst years for any starter in the American League, highlighting his diminished fastball not having enough separation from his off-speed offerings to get many swings and misses. Blum mentions that it is believed Canning was tipping pitches.

That said, he took the ball 32 times, averaging five and a third innings a start. So if the Mets are looking for a swingman type to eat some innings and keep games from becoming blowouts, even the 2024 version of Canning might be able to do that. To boot, Canning struck out eight Mets in a 3-2 Angels victory in 2024, so there’s that.

After the season, Canning was traded to the Braves for Jorge Soler in a salary dump deal and who, just 23 days later, non-tendered Canning before his final year of team control.

This move appears to be another Mets reclamation project in the same vein as Sean Manaea and Luis Severino last season, or Frankie Montas this season. Canning was once a top prospect, and as recently as 2023 flashed signs of a bright future. But at 28 years old, Canning’s chances are running out. If the Mets can help him not tip his pitches, put a little more zip on his fastball, and improve his pitch selection, there’s every chance that Canning could be a solid number five or six starter for the Mets. He will join the likes of Paul Blackburn, Tylor Megill, and José Buttó, looking to impress in Port St. Lucie.

However, the deal is small enough that if he comes to spring training and looks cooked, the Mets can cut bait without too much fanfare. If the Mets are indeed going with a six man rotation, Canning is the type of player that you can keep as the sixth man, able to be bumped when necessary, and who could maybe work some long relief in those instances. But who knows, maybe David Stearns and co. think a few weeks in the Mets pitching lab can fix him. Regardless, this is good depth for the Mets, provided they add a starter closer to the top end of their rotation, which all signs indicate they are pursuing.