Griffin Canning has added a cutter to his arsenal and is playing with a sweeper he has not yet debuted.
But the biggest difference in how he is pitching this season thus far has involved pitch selection rather than adjustments to his repertoire or tweaks to the pitches themselves.
With the Angels last season — when Canning finished as the least-valuable qualified pitcher in all of baseball, according to FanGraphs — he led with his four-seam fastball and tried to get into counts when he could turn to his slider and changeup.
He threw his slider 24.1 percent of the time in 2024, when he logged a 5.19 ERA in 32 games.
This year, he has nearly doubled the usage of that pitch, throwing it 44.3 percent of the time through two solid outings.
Canning always has known that his slider and changeup were strong.
The Mets’ message to him this spring, then, made sense.
“It was kind of like, ‘Hey, these are your best pitches. Why not lean on them a little bit more?’ ” Canning said this week, before he gets the ball for Friday’s series opener against the Athletics in West Sacramento, Calif.
Leaning on the slider more in particular, the righty has not yet pitched deep into a game — a common Mets issue — but has let up three runs in 9 ²/₃ innings (2.79 ERA) and struck out a combined 10 against Houston and Toronto.
This offseason, the Mets signed the 28-year-old for $4.25 million, Canning looking like a depth option until injuries to Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea struck.
The club had identified that Canning — a former top prospect who established himself as a major league pitcher in five seasons with the Angels, but not a strong one (4.78 ERA) — had enough stuff that better results could be found.
“Just over-pitched at times, trying to trick the hitter,” Canning said of his previous seasons, “instead of just now leaning into my strengths.”
A pair of encouraging outings, in which Canning has shown a similar enough arsenal but sequenced his pitches differently, has reinforced the Mets’ belief that he can be more than he was.
In 11 career games against the A’s, his former division rival, Canning has pitched to a 4.84 ERA.
Quieting a lineup he called “great” will get tougher at Sutter Health Park, a part-time minor league stadium where the ball can fly.
On the other hand, he will have an easier time of getting a grip than Mets pitchers did at a nearly freezing Citi Field the past few days.
“I think we’re looking forward to some warm weather,” Canning said with a smile.
