Carlos Correa Passes Physical, Officially Signs With Minnesota Twins
Our long national nightmare is over, Carlos Correa has officially signed with his new team.
And it's the same as the old team.
Nearly a month ago, Correa had agreed to sign with the San Francisco Giants in a massive, $350 million deal. That fell apart literally at the press conference where he would have been introduced.
Then the Mets swooped in, seemingly taking advantage of the Giants reticence based on an old ankle injury.
Except their doctors balked after seeing his medical reports too. Despite team owner Steve Cohen publicly commenting on the agreement, an extremely rare occurrence before a deal is official, that contract collapsed too.
Far from the shocking, fast moving situation in San Francisco, the Mets negotiations dragged on for weeks. Correa's camp grew increasingly frustrated, and just a few days ago, rumors started flying that they were talking to other teams.
Turned out, those rumors were true.
Correa agreed to a significantly altered deal with the Minnesota Twins, taking him back to where he played in 2022.
READ: CARLOS CORREA HEADS TO TWINS FOR SIGNIFICANTLY LESS MONEY THAN METS, GIANTS
The Twins made the signing official, with a brief tweet celebrating Correa's return to Minneapolis.
BALTIMORE, MD - MAY 03: Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa (4) celebrates his difficult catch during the Minnesota Twins game versus the Baltimore Orioles on May 3, 2022 at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, in Baltimore, MD. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Correa Signing Ends Insane Process
His path to resigning in Minnesota was one of the most surprising, unusual free agency periods in recent memory.
It's extremely rare for an agreement with one team to fall apart, let alone two. It's even more rare for one of the team's owners to publicly say how excited he was to bring a player in. Only to see it collapse entirely.
The injury concerns were also bizarre and a bit inexplicable.
His ankle injury clearly wasn't a big enough problem to prevent him from having a great 2022 season. But team doctors in New York and San Francisco were apparently concerned about the long term ramifications.
That seems to imply a level of predictability over future injuries that we don't really have. Maybe his ankle gives out in 2032, but are you willing to sacrifice adding a franchise star now for the potential of injury issues down the road?
Taking risks on players that get hurt is a part of baseball. Anthony Rendon was one of the top free agents in the sport a few seasons ago after a tremendous season with the Nationals.
Yet he's played just 157 games in three seasons after arriving in Anaheim, despite being in his age 30-32 years.
Predicting injuries is nearly impossible. Predicting contributions to team success in the near future is generally much easier.
Correa will make the Twins significantly better and more competitive in the AL Central over the next few seasons. And for that reason alone, Twins fans should be celebrating today. And so should Scott Boras, for finally putting an end to this lengthy process.