Max Kranick might be the best Mets reliever you’ve never heard of.
Of course, if you follow the Mets closely, you might have heard about the right-hander last spring when he came into camp with his favorite childhood team for the first time. A Pennsylvania native, Kranick was claimed off waivers last winter after spending his entire career with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He last pitched in the big leagues in 2022, but then had Tommy John surgery in June of that year and missed the rest of the season and much of the one after that. However, if he keeps pitching the way he has been this spring, the reliever will find himself on a big league mound again soon.
Kranick has yet to allow a run in seven innings of Grapefruit League play. Now 27, Kranick has allowed only four hits and struck out eight hitters, without allowing a walk. It’s a small sample size, but spring training is about small sample sizes. Still, the Mets like what they see from Kranick as a reliever, with a 97-98 MPH fastball and an impressive sweeper.
“I’m feeling like my old self again,” Kranick recently told the Daily News in Port St. Lucie. “Obviously, it’s a really talented group and a tough roster to crack. I’ll just position myself the best way I can and have a good spring, and control what I can control.”
Kranick was a highly-regarded prospect coming up through the Pirates organization out of high school, but Tommy John surgery came at the wrong time. His big league debut came in 2021 and he made two relief appearances in 2022 before getting shut down. Last year, the Mets had planned on using him as a depth starter, but a hamstring strain in spring training set him back.
Then came another curveball when the Mets moved him to the bullpen with Triple-A Syracuse. The big league bullpen was bending, trying not to break and the Mets saw it as an insurance policy of sorts.
Initially, Kranick wasn’t happy with the decision.
“It definitely was a frustrating first half of the year,” Kranick said. “Came to camp excited, threw them the ball well, and then obviously the hamstring. Finally, I was feeling healthy and confident again then that took a big hit. It really just took a couple months to, No. 1, get my body feeling good, and then No. 2, confidence; it was just kind of in a rough place, I’d say, up until like August…
“Then in August, I don’t know what changed with my confidence, but something clicked, and I started throwing hard again, offspeed started playing better. And, yeah, I was in a relief role, and things went really well.”
Kranick relied heavily on pitching coach Grayson Crawford, who encouraged him to focus on the process more than the results. Every few weeks, they looked at the results to see how the process was working and to determine whether or not it needed to be altered. But Kranick pitched so well after August that the Mets added him to the postseason roster during the Wild Card round.
Though he went unused, he took the opportunity to learn from veteran relievers like Adam Ottavino.
“It’s a different game, it’s unbelievable,” Kranick said of watching the postseason from the bullpen. “Otto said, ‘Of course, you want to pitch in the situation, but I think this is going to help you be able to see it and feel the atmosphere and all those things. The first time I did it, I jumped right into a game, and it kind of sped up on me.’ So learning from those guys and kind of watching how they went about their work, it was so much fun.”
Kranick went 2-1 with a 3.57 ERA over 63 innings with Syracuse last season. He brought his walk rate down from previous seasons. The emphasis for him over the winter and into spring is on two-strike execution, with Kranick now having a better understanding of when to throw which of his four pitches in which situations as a reliever.
Kranick and Jose Butto are both set to be used in multi-inning roles, and with A.J. Minter and Dedniel Nuñez still working back from injuries, the Mets could end up starting the season with both right-handers.
If that’s the case, expect the Kranick family to be at Citi Field when the Mets open the home slate April 4 against the Blue Jays.
“Hopefully, they’ll be at Citi Field a lot this summer,” Kranick said.