Why Mets' Griffin Canning plans to reach out to Klay Thompson amid injury recovery

New York Mets starting pitcher Griffin Canning suffered a brutal blow when he went down with a season-ending ruptured left Achilles during the club's 4-0 win over the Atlanta Braves on June 26. 

While speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Canning revealed that he plans to reach out to NBA star Klay Thompson about recovering from such a serious setback. 

"I’m good friends with Trayce Thompson, so he kinda connected me with his brother," Canning explained, as shared by Manny Gomez of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "It’s pretty early in the stages at this point. I have some questions, so I’m going to reach out to Klay for sure." 

As Newsday's Ben Dickson noted, Trayce Thompson is currently in the Boston Red Sox organization. Klay Thompson suffered an Achilles tear in November 2020 while working to return from a torn ACL. 

On Tuesday, Canning revealed that it could take him "maybe" nine months to recover from his injury. Whether or not he will make his in-game return as a member of the Mets shall be seen. 

Canning signed a one-year, $4.25M contract with the Mets back in December and seemed to be the latest short-term project to benefit from working with the club's well-known "pitching lab." Across the 16 total starts he made with the 2025 Mets, he accumulated a 7-3 record with a 3.77 ERA, 1.376 WHIP and 70 strikeouts over 76.1 innings. 

The 29-year-old is one of four New York starting pitchers sidelined with an injury in the first week of July. Sean Manaea (oblique) still hasn't made his 2025 regular-season debut, was recently shut down from throwing because of a bone chip in his elbow and had a planned rehab start with Double-A Binghamton on Tuesday night rained out. Ace Kodai Senga hasn't pitched since he suffered a hamstring strain on June 12, but manager Carlos Mendoza said on Tuesday that Senga could begin a rehab assignment soon. It's unclear when Tylor Megill will take the bump again coming off the right elbow sprain that was discovered after his June 14 start. 

Meanwhile, the Mets lost 13 of 16 games to fall from 45-24 to 48-37 on the season ahead of Wednesday's home doubleheader versus the Milwaukee Brewers (47-37).

"It sucks," Canning added during his comments. "I want to be out there with the guys. I mean, I just love baseball, so I think that’s probably the worst part, that I just don’t get to play for a while. Been doing some research, reading up on some of the basketball players who have had this."