Former Angels bust is rolling for the NY Mets for the time being

As the Angels overhauled their starting rotation over the offseason, one of the fixtures they said goodbye to was the ever-disappointing Griffin Canning. Despite his billing as a top prospect, the right-handed starter never lived up to his potential.

Injuries and inconsistency held him back during his tenure in Anaheim, which couldn't have ended worse as Canning led the American League in earned runs allowed in 2024. In one of the best moves of the offseason made by any team, general manager Perry Minasian was somehow able to convince his favorite trading partner, the Atlanta Braves, to take Canning in exchange for Jorge Soler.

Quickly DFA'd by Atlanta, the former Halo signed a somewhat surprising one-year $4.25 million contract with the New York Mets, a team with World Series aspirations. Canning was signed to be a "break glass in case of emergency" starter for them; however, as injuries mounted in their starting rotation, they were forced to embrace the full Griffin Canning experience, trotting him out there every fifth day while they await reinforcements from the injured list.

Griffin Canning has given his new team a sign of hope, a feeling Angels fans know all too well

Throughout his tenure with the Halos, Canning would occasionally provide a glimmer of hope that he had finally figured out how to be productive at the major league level. As we all know, those flashes were always short-lived. Now in Queens, Canning has seemingly turned it around, posting respectable numbers over his first three starts. In that time period, he's logged a 4.20 ERA through 15 innings pitched, not out of this world, but a solid performance for a back-of-the-rotation arm.

Mets fans may think they've gotten a steal, but they're dead wrong. On the season, Canning is walking batters at a higher rate than ever. His 4.80 BB/9 is worse than any year in his career, with his previous high-water mark coming in 2021 when he posted a 4.02 BB/9.

Furthermore, his 1.53 WHIP is astronomically high, and his performance has been buoyed by a similarly high left on base rate of 79.6%, nearly ten percentage points higher than last season's 69.6% mark. As a result, his expected ERA, based on the amount of earned runs he should be allowing based on the contact and walks he's given up, is a career-worst 5.31

All of this shows that while Canning has allowed a lot of traffic on the basepaths, he's enjoyed considerable luck that has prevented them from reaching home. Over time, that luck will run out, and his numbers will look much more in line with what Angels fans saw from him over five torturous years.

If you think this is a case of a former Angel finally unlocking his true potential after leaving the organization, think again. Just give it a little time, and you'll quickly see this is the same Griffin Canning that regularly blew up in Anaheim, and soon his new team will know the pain that the Angels felt whenever he took the mound.

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