We all knew where we were when Griffin Canning went down with what became a season-ending injury. I had a used diaper in my hand. One of the more questionable New York Mets free agent signings of the offseason, Canning turned out to be a satisfying addition to the ball club. He’ll wrap up his season with the Mets with a 7-3 record, 3.77 ERA, and 16 starts. Last year’s American League leading in earned runs allowed with 99 turned out to be a half-season success for the Mets. It’s a shame that’s all we’ll get.

His loss was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. The team already lost Kodai Senga and Tylor Megill. Sean Manaea’s rehab setback caused at least a cringe.

Losing Canning for the year stings but it’s less critical than it may feel. In reality, it’s barely a flesh wound for a team that wasn’t banking on him carrying them to the postseason and beyond. If it wasn’t for issues with other starting pitchers, the loss wouldn’t be punishing our sciatic nerves.

The Griffin Canning injury sucks but it’s not a make or break situation for the Mets

Let’s first reference the timing of the injury. If you had to pick a time for a player to get seriously hurt, late June is it. The Mets are going to continue going back-and-forth with the Philadelphia Phillies for first place in the NL East. They’re headed toward being extreme trade deadline buyers with the Canning injury giving them more than enough time to decide just how large a crate they want to add.

At the time of the injury, Canning was the third best starting pitcher the Mets had. Behind Clay Holmes and David Peterson, the return of Senga and debut of Manaea would have pushed Canning into a fifth starter’s role. The Mets aren’t a five-man band with their rotation. Regularly deploying a sixth starter made Canning’s success more paramount. The selection of sixth starters the Mets have used this year haven’t been exceptionally consistent. So for them to get as much out of Canning as they did felt like a huge reward.

Canning surprised us all with how well he pitched with very few wrinkles, if any, along the way. His fluke injury throws a wrench in the Mets’ plans, but it also solves the ongoing question fans had from the beginning of the year. How would they possibly be able to manage all of these starting pitchers? The answer was always “they weren’t all going to be healthy at the same time.”

Just because the Mets technically lost their fifth starter doesn’t mean they should settle for a replacement of the same ilk. Canning was performing like a middle of the rotation arm at times this year. It’s precisely what the Mets should shop for at the trade deadline if a starting pitcher addition is indeed on their wish list. That’ll depend heavily on the health of their current walking wounded on the IL as well as those who’ve managed to escape the injury bug. They have a few weeks to heal up and analyze further. Amazingly, if all goes well, they may not actually end up replacing Canning at all because he was always just a guy to hold down the fort.