Former New York Mets starter Griffin Canning signed a one year deal with the San Diego Padres, with the move reported by Mark Polishuk of MLBTradeRumors.com via the Divine Sports Gospel. Canning’s deal isn’t considered official yet, as he still has to pass a physical, and the Padres have to make another move with their 40-man roster to accommodate him after signing outfielder/first baseman Nick Castellanos earlier today
Canning has had an uneven career. The native of Mission Viejo played his college baseball at UCLA, and he began his career as a Top 100 prospect with the Los Angeles Angels. His ERA for the Angels was an unsightly 4.78 over his first 508 innings for the Angels, with 94 of his appearances and the majority of his innings being starts.
The Angels bailed on Canning last offseason in a trade with the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Jorge Soles, but the deal didn’t work out well for either team. Soler has underperformed for the Angels, while Atlanta chose to non-tender Canning, given that Atlanta’s chief goal in that trade was to get rid of Soler’s contract, according to Polishuk. s
Canning signed a one-year contract with the New York Mets, and at first it looked like the Mets had struck gold as the pitcher posted a 2.47 ERA over his first nine appearances for New York. But the right-hander struggled after that, and his ERA rose to 3.77 in his next seven appearances, and he ruptured his Achilles tendon in late June.
His story is a familiar one to Mets fans. Half their staff either fell apart or got hurt in the second half of the season, so it made sense for the Mets to move on from Canning, especially given the logjam in the back end of their starting rotation.
The Mets still haven’t solved that problem. There were trade rumors about starter Kodai Senga right after the offseason, but the never came to fruition. After that there were more rumors about possibly trading one of their back end starters plus a prime prospect to the Padres for reliever Mason Miller, but those rumors were way more smoke than fire.
Now the Padres have Canning, and the Mets have their logjam. Canning is close to a lottery ticket in San Diego, although he did get more money than the usual player in his circumstances. The Mets simply didn’t have room for him, and it remains to be seen if they can break their logjam and get their rotation in order before the season starts.