Carlos Correa’s eventful trip to free agency — which included collapsed deals with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets before eventually re-signing with the Minnesota Twins — raises an interesting question: Will the shortstop actually be hindered by his surgically repaired right ankle moving forward?
Correa suffered the injury as a prospect back in 2014, and it hasn’t affected his game to this point in his Major League Baseball career. But the Giants backed out of a 13-year, $350 million contract with Correa this winter, while the Mets pulled the plug on a 12-year, $315 million agreement before he inked a six-year, $200 million deal with the Twins. Clearly, the concern was real, even though it’s impossible to project how the 28-year-old ultimately will hold up.
It’s easy, of course, for us, as outside observers, to sit here and say the Giants or the Mets should’ve just swallowed hard and written the check. But a new report Thursday from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman lends credence to the teams’ uneasiness about committing so many years and dollars to Correa.
According to Heyman, a doctor suggested Correa has the “worst ankle he’s seen.”
Here’s what Heyman wrote regarding Correa’s free agency:
Meantime, Carlos Correa’s three deals did provide a lot of drama. But in the end, he may have gotten the right deal — six years with a high $33.3 million annual average — following a lot of headlines. One rival exec predicted no one will ever again get $200M after two failures (one doctor suggested Correa has the worst ankle he’s seen) and called it a “Houdini” job to get that much after a “collapsed market.” But the Twins love him and pay no tax.
It truly is remarkable that Correa still secured $200 million (well north of $30 million annually) from the Twins after the debacles involving the Giants and Mets. But it’s also wild just how much that deal differs in total magnitude from his original agreement with San Francisco.
While it’s certainly possible Minnesota ends up feeling buyer’s remorse, we probably shouldn’t rule out a scenario where Correa thrives for the life of his new contract without ever showing any residual effect of the ankle injury he suffered while sliding into a base almost a decade ago.
