Kranick home again, looking for another chance to go

MOOSIC

There’s something serendipitous about the timing of his homecoming, even though in so many ways, Max Kranick would have preferred it didn’t have to happen.

A season that started out with so much promise, so much hope for a brighter future, ended up back in Triple-A by Memorial Day weekend. But through the magic of the International League schedule, the former Valley View star ended up in a place that it’s so great for him to be.

Home. In the shadow of his hometown. On the same weekend Jessup and so many others around the Midvalley will celebrate St. Ubaldo Day.

The Race of the Saints. The music. The atmosphere. All manner of livestock, in his yard. It couldn’t be better.

“Well, my parents are hoping I pitch (Friday) and not (Saturday), so they don’t have to lock up the house to come down here,” Kranick laughed outside the visitors dugout at PNC Field on Friday. “They’re a little bit stressed about that.

“But it all works out perfect, timing-wise, right? Being home. Being able to throw in front of everyone. Then go back to my house and celebrate with family and friends, see some of them. Memorial Day weekend, too. It’s exciting.”

In this case, the timing worked out. And he did pitch Friday night.

But for the Syracuse Mets right-hander, such good fortune hasn’t always been in his corner.

After the team that drafted him, the Pittsburgh Pirates, placed him on waivers in January, Kranick wound up blessed with a fresh start in baseball, in a place where he always dreamed he might get one.

The longtime Mets fan was claimed by New York and entered spring training with hopes — shared as much by the Mets front office as himself — that he could be the type of arm the organization so desperately needed at the big-league level.

For a while, it looked like he’d absolutely live up to that billing.

After missing a good chunk of the 2022 and 2023 seasons while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, Kranick started to feel much of the strong points of his game that made him a highly touted prospect with the Pirates coming back to him.

The velocity was there. His fastball stormed past hitters at 96 mph during his first spring start Feb. 26, catching manager Carlos Mendoza’s eye. His mix of pitches was strong, as were their shapes.

“It was probably the best I ever felt on Feb. 26,” he said. “I think I had a chance at it.”

The next day, he felt cramping in his left hamstring.

By the end of the week, he was on the injured list with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. Chances of making the opening day roster were toast.

“It sucked,” Kranick said, staring down at the gravel on the warning track. “I’d probably be in a very different situation right now, to be very honest.”

Especially given the beating the Mets pitching staff has taken on the injury front over the last three months.

The same week the hamstring went on Kranick, ace right-hander Kodai Senga went on the injured list with a shoulder issue. He hasn’t made it back, and was just shut down when an MRI found nerve inflammation in his triceps. David Peterson, a steady left-hander, underwent offseason hip surgery and made a rehab start for Syracuse on Friday against the RailRiders at PNC Field.

In short, there were plenty of opportunities for a healthy Kranick to carve out his spot in the big leagues again.

He just wasn’t healthy. And his rehab outings were a mixed bag: Six strikeouts in 2⅔ shutout innings in his first game with Single-A St. Lucie, two runs in 3⅓ innings in his next one. Four runs in 3⅓ innings in his first start for Double-A Binghamton, 3⅔ shutout frames in his next.

“It pretty much felt like my spring training at that time,” Kranick said.

After the Mets claimed reliever Yohan Ramirez off waivers from Baltimore, they cleared a roster spot for him by designating Kranick for assignment May 4.

Still working his way back to full strength, he went unclaimed and was outrighted to Syracuse. While he wouldn’t be the first Scranton-area star to go there and make himself a star, it’s not exactly how he envisioned his season going before that cramp in the leg back in February.

He knows, if he’s going to get back to where he wants to be — on the Mets 40-man roster, and to New York — he has to show he is back to where he was heading at that time.

Lately, he believes he has been. Kranick’s last three outings with Syracuse were stellar. He dominated Iowa over two innings May 18, struck out a pair in two nearly perfect innings against a RailRiders team that has proven to be solid offensively this season in his PNC Field professional debut Tuesday and added a scoreless 1⅓ innings with one hit and one strikeout on 25 pitches (13 strikes) Friday night.

The velocity is back up. Several fastballs registered at 95 mph Tuesday, and his curveball looked mostly sharp in swing-and-miss situations. He’s hoping to show he can pile up innings and provide longer outings if that’s what the Mets need.

Timing is often everything. In baseball, and in life.

Maybe though, finding the form he neared in spring training here — at home — is enough to take away some of the sting of that bad timing, to give him one more chance to say hello to the people who helped get him to the major leagues.

Maybe, a fond farewell, too.

“This was awesome,” Kranick said, looking around the empty ballpark before it filled up Friday. “Tuesday, there were a lot of family and friends here. It was definitely exciting. It’s nice to come back home and have my family be in the stands. ... I’m familiar with it here. I’m comfortable with it. I throw my offseason bullpens in the cage back there, where I was stretching today. It’s exciting.”

DONNIE COLLINS is a sports columnist for The Times-Tribune. Contact him at dcollins@scrantontimes.com and follow him @DonnieCollinsTT on X.