SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — As Ron Washington gets to know his players, beyond simply the numbers they’ve produced, Griffin Canning made an immediate impression on his new manager.
Washington, in fact, pulled the right-hander aside this spring to let him know what he thought of his work.
“There may be older guys on that pitching staff, but let me tell you something, they don’t handle their business the way you handle yours,” Washington told Canning.
Canning is 27 and has only made it through one full major league season in the rotation. The others were interrupted by injuries or the pandemic.
Still, Washington likes what he’s seen.
“He’s an athlete and he’s a natural leader and that attribute I want him to use every day,” Washington said. “He’s got all those kids with him. Bring them with him. Don’t you do it and hope they follow. No, no, no. Make them follow. Because you do it right. You stand out. I let him know that I want him to lead that pitching staff.”
After Canning worked two scoreless innings against the San Francisco Giants in his spring debut on Monday, he said he appreciated Washington’s confidence.
“Obviously Wash has been in the game for a long time, so that’s awesome to hear,” Canning said. “I want to prove him right. I want to be a leader so I’ll do what I can.”
Canning, who starred at Santa Margarita High and UCLA, was the Angels’ second-round pick in the 2017 draft, and he’s been in the majors since 2019, although he’s been injured for much of that time.
“When you look at it, I’m one of the guys that has been with Angels the longest now, so I know kind of where we can improve and that kind of thing,” Canning said. “If we can turn around the culture and kind of set it how we want it to be then, yeah, anything I can do to help.”
For his part, Canning will simply be trying to take the next step on what he did last season, which was an encouraging 127 innings. He had missed the previous…
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