NY Mets rumors involving free agent reunion make very little sense

According to the NY Post’s Jon Heyman, there may be a free agent reunion for the New York Mets to make after all. Among those who they saw become available for the rest of the league, the only one who was actually re-signed by the Mets this offseason was Richard Lovelady.

Could there be a second? Apparently, the Mets rumors dropped by Heyman on Friday included interest in free agent Griffin Canning. Under different circumstances, by all means.

But right now, as currently constructed, the Mets don’t really seem to have the space for Canning. He pitched well for them before his season-ending injury. They don’t need “well.” They need explosive ace-type material.

Re-signing Griffin Canning forces a few too many chairs to be rearranged on the roster

Yet to add their biggest punch at the top of the rotation, Canning seems like a longshot. The Mets would need to subtract two arms from their rotation which already feels like a tall task. Then again, they’re paying Bo Bichette an insane amount every year for up to three seasons.

It has always felt like David Peterson and Kodai Senga would be the likeliest to get subtracted from the Mets rotation. Sean Manaea is on a difficult contract to move. Clay Holmes was too good and felt like a bargain on the contract he signed. 

Canning was already a curious fit last offseason, but it made sense to bring him in with the risk of injury and the way the Mets could have navigated by putting him into the bullpen if he wasn’t doing well. A 3.77 ERA across 16 starts was more than we could have hoped for. A 50.2% ground ball rate overshadowed the 46.2% hard-hit rate against him.

Many times, Canning was victimized the same way as other Mets pitchers. He was good for 5 innings. An 11.57 ERA in his 4.2 total innings in the sixth inning spread across 9 different appearances sent out a warning shot of how risky it was to ever give him the ball for a third time through the order. Those batters at a 1.024 OPS against him in 2025.

A solid one year-rental for the Mets, it’s not even close to being a match. Other than a bullpen role where he can get some spot starts and slot into the rotation, this one doesn’t work.