5 NY Mets players who will begin the year on the roster but might be gone by Memorial Day

2) Griffin Canning

The Mets signed Griffin Canning in December to a one-year contract worth $4.25 million. The right-hander is coming off an abysmal season with the Los Angeles Angels, where he had a 5.19 ERA, 5.26 FIP, and 1.40 WHIP while pitching 171.2 innings. Canning put up a career-low 16.7% K%, the first time he’s had a sub-par K% in his career. He also had a mediocre 8.9% walk rate, but home runs gave Canning a ton of issues. His 1.63 HR/9 was the third-highest in baseball last season. Canning also had an unimpressive 90.5 MPH exit velocity and 8.6% barrel percentage.

But Canning isn’t far removed from a solid 2023 season. During that year, he had a 4.32 ERA, 4.29 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP in 127 innings pitched. He had both a healthy 25.9% strikeout rate and a 6.7% walk rate. Home runs still gave him some issues, with a 1.56 HR/9 and even worse 91 MPH exit velocity/9.8% barrel percentage, but it wasn’t half bad for a back-of-the-rotation pitcher. Plus, he put up both a quality 3.80 SIERA and 3.82 xFIP, showing there might have been more in the tank.

But there are other worrying factors besides a poor 2025, where he saw huge drops in his peripherals. Canning lost over a tick of velocity, going from averaging 94.7 MPH and in the 63rd percentile of fastball velocity to 93.4 MPH and sitting in the 38th percentile of fastball velo. Canning has never been an overpowering pitcher, but Stuff+ pinned him at 97 in 2023. That fell to just 89 in 2024.

Even though Canning wasn’t bad as recently as 2023, his 2024 was so poor that much of the progress he made during ‘23 has seemingly dissipated. Canning may get a chance to stick on the roster for now because of Frankie Montas’ injury. But don’t expect him to stick around once Montas is healthy or the Mets decide to promote Brandon Sproat. Even if they need more pitching depth beyond that, Canning should not be the answer.