Griffin Canning has all but locked up one of the two remaining spots in the New York Mets’ starting rotation following another sterling outing on Monday afternoon against the Miami Marlins, in which he allowed one run on three hits with nine strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work.
He has a 0.90 ERA in three spring training appearances, looking like a completely different pitcher than the one who went 6-13 with a 5.19 ERA in 31 starts with the Los Angeles Angels last season.
The 28-year-old right-hander has not overhauled his arsenal or made significant changes to his pitches. He is putting slightly less spin on his slider and seeing a minuscule bump in its vertical break. The spin rate on his slider is almost identical, and so is the speed, but he got nearly four more inches of vertical drop on Monday than he averaged last season. His four-seam fastball is also getting an inch more of horizontal break.
But nothing is so striking as to explain the difference in effectiveness.
Griffin Canning pitch comparisons: 2024 averages vs. Monday’s averages
| 2024 4-Seam fastball | 4-Seamer on 3/17 | 2024 Slider | Slider on 3/17 | 2024 Changeup | Changeup on 3/17 | |
| Spin Rate | 2,118 rpm | 2,146 rpm | 2,672 rpm | 2,605 rpm | 1,770 rpm | 1,796 rpm |
| Movement | 15.2 inches (horizontal) | 16.4 inches (horizontal) | 36.7 inches (vertical) | 37.4 inches (vertical) | 30.6 inches (vertical) | 34.1 inches (vertical) |
| Speed | 93.4 mph | 93.1 mph | 87.7 mph | 87.9 mph | 88.6 mph | 88.8 mph |
What it appears to be boiling down to is sequencing and usage.
On Monday, Canning threw his slider 36 times out his 71 pitches — a striking up-tick (50.7%) than the 24.1% usage rate he used the pitch last season.
While the changeup also experienced a slight bump (26.7% on Monday vs. 23.9% in 2024), the four-seamer was used far less frequently. Canning threw his fastball 37.4% of the time last season. On Monday, he threw it just 25.3% of the time.
Despite the significant discrepancy between his slider and his other two pitches, he utilized them equally early in counts. Of the 17 batters he faced, he threw six first-pitch sliders, six first-pitch fastball, and five first-pitch changeups — relying on the four-seamer early (four times in the first two innings) and leaning on the changeup late (four times in the last 1.2 innings).
The steady diet of sliders was most effective as his putaway pitch. He racked up five of his nine punchouts with it — four swinging. In total, he got nine whiffs on 20 swings with six called strikes.
The changeup got two swinging strikeouts and three whiffs on four swings with four additional called strikes.
“I think a big part of last year of why I didn’t strike guys out was sequencing,” Canning said. “I just wasn’t setting guys up to strike out. So I think it was just getting back to being myself. Understanding what my pitch mix is, what I’m going to lean on, and how to deviate when I need to.”
It has created quite the jump in his strikeout numbers. With 130 punchouts in 171.2 innings pitched last year, his K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings) ration was a career-worst 6.8. Through 10 innings and three spring-training appearances, it’s at 14.4 K/9 (16 total strikeouts) behind that three-pitch arsenal.
“I think those are going to be my main pitches,” Canning, who throws a curveball and sinker but did not use it on Monday, said. “You’re kind of past the point of working on stuff in spring now. You just want to go out there and execute pitches and get outs.”
Stats courtesy of Baseball Savant.
For more on Griffin Canning and the Mets, visit AMNY.com
