What Mets’ Griffin Canning learned from Shohei Ohtani as Angels teammates

Shohei Ohtani was scheduled to face batters Saturday for the first time since he underwent a second Tommy John surgery in September 2023, but the late ending of Friday’s extra-inning win by the Dodgers at Citi Field forced the Dodgers to push it back to Sunday.

It’s not often a pitcher’s return is anticipated as much as this one, but there’s only one Ohtani.

Griffin Canning has seen Ohtani up close for longer than most.

Canning was drafted by the Angels out of UCLA in the second round in July 2017.

Five months later, the Angels won the Ohtani sweepstakes.

And by the time Canning made his MLB debut in 2019, Ohtani was already meeting the extraordinarily high expectations he arrived with on both sides of the ball.

“I remember being in the minors when we signed him and how exciting it was,’’ Canning said before the Mets faced the Dodgers on Saturday in Queens. “He’s definitely lived up to the hype.”

It took some time, as Canning recalled seeing Ohtani in spring training in 2018 and Ohtani hadn’t yet turned the baseball world on its head.

“I think Japanese players view spring training a little differently,” Canning said of Ohtani’s famously poor performance during the Cactus League in Arizona that spring. “He came over here and wasn’t throwing as hard as before. And hitting is always an adjustment and he was doing stuff with his leg kick.”

Those changes didn’t take long to kick in, as Ohtani excelled both at the plate and on the mound before being shut down in September with an ulnar collateral ligament injury that led to his first Tommy John surgery.

He returned to the mound in 2020, won the American League MVP with the Angels in 2021 and ’23, and finished fourth in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2022.

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers for 10 years and $700 million prior to the 2024 season and then won his first National League MVP, but he’s yet to throw a pitch with the organization.

He’s been throwing bullpen sessions and has gotten up to 50 pitches, including breaking balls. Ohtani isn’t expected to join the Dodgers rotation until after the All-Star break.

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“I want to see him throw [Sunday],’’ Canning said. “I’ll be out there.”

Canning never found much success as Ohtani’s teammate in Anaheim, but said the star has had an impact on his career.

“Just watching him go about his business was important,’’ said Canning, who has been a significant part of the surprisingly good Mets rotation after signing in the offseason. “How routine-oriented and focused he is on what he needs to get done.”

And while their repertoires were different, Canning said he’d still try to glean some knowledge from him.

“On the pitching side, we’d talk and I’d pick his brain on how he looked at lineups and wanted to attack them,” Canning said. “He gave me some pointers on pitch grips.”

More than anything else, though, Canning enjoyed the spectacle, which is why he’s looking forward to seeing Ohtani on the mound in games again.

“It was a lot of fun watching him pitch,” Canning said. “He had a different game plan for everyone and different ideas for how he could manipulate the ball.”

There were few bigger events — especially with the Angels, who managed not to win much despite the presence of Ohtani and a healthy Mike Trout — than Ohtani starts.

“You kind of get used to it, seeing him every day,” Canning said. “The things he was able to do looked normal. That’s how special a player he is.”