The Baseball World Wouldn't Just Let Carlos Correa Be a Minnesota Twin
But that's not how I'll remember C4
Per multiple reports, star shortstop Carlos Correa last night signed a 13-year, $350 million contract with the Giants, the fourth-highest total value contract in MLB history and the highest for an infielder. Despite the Twins reportedly offering a higher average annual value (AAV) at ~$285 million over 10 years, the extra three years and the marquee dollar amount were too much for Correa to turn down.
It’s the same choice I would have made in his position. I also frankly can’t fault the Twins for not offering those extra three years, and that’s exactly why we Twins fans feared this day would come from the moment he signed that opt-out-laden, three-year, $105 million deal last offseason. This team just doesn’t write checks that big. That they broke the bank to sign Correa at $35M AAV in the first place was a big shock to baseball fans in Minnesota.
It was also a big shock to baseball fans outside of Minnesota and boy did they let us know it. There were 269 days between Carlos originally signing with the Twins on March 19 and him signing with the Giants yesterday, and not one of them went by without some overaggressive fan on Twitter or Reddit or Discord going out of their way to make sure we knew that he was definitely going to opt out at season’s end and, once that happened, he was definitely going to sign somewhere else.
For most of the season, Twins fans readily agreed on the first point,1 but most of us were never truly convinced on the second; even well into the offseason, most of the fanbase believed the team had a legitimate chance to keep C4 at Target Field. In the end, the contract they reportedly offered him — which would have been the largest in team history by a country mile — proved that belief correct.2
But, for as much as opposing fans grinded my gears this past season, that was nothing in comparison to how the baseball media handled this whole situation all year. Seemingly every month throughout 2022, there was a new report on how Correa was “likely” to opt out of his deal at the end of the season — from this Buster Olney report in May,3 to this Jon Heyman report in August, to this MLB Trade Rumors piece near the end of the season in September. Before the trade deadline, a lot of people even wondered aloud if the Twins should trade one of their best players in the middle of a division race. Some of that was undeniably the work of Correa’s agent Scott Boras, a master at puppeteering the media to drive up the price tag on his clients, but there was absolutely no reason it needed to be this prevalent.
Couldn’t Carlos Correa just be a Minnesota Twin? Even if just for one season?
Why couldn’t we go one hour without having to be reminded that this whole thing was fleeting? Would it have been too much to ask for the baseball world to let Minnesota enjoy the talents of the biggest free agent their team had ever signed?
That’s all I ever wanted to do. I wanted to gawk at Correa’s incredible snags in the field as Joe Ryan did on the mound. I wanted to marvel at his tremendous homers the same way I do for pretty much everyone else in a Twins uniform. I wanted to gain respect for him as a true clubhouse leader, hearing him stick up for his teammates and shut up angsty fans who had no idea what they were talking about.
And I did do all that.
I grew to adore Carlos Correa very quickly. Even as many fans — including some Twins fans — were still upset at him for his role in the 2017 Astros cheating scandal, I found myself admiring him both as a great ballplayer and as a seemingly well-adjusted, level-headed personality.
Sure, the year wasn’t all great — his play wasn’t as consistent as many fans would have liked and, for whatever reason, he randomly hit really poorly with runners in scoring position — but it was still clear the whole season that we were watching one of the best players in the world. Over the full season, Correa led the team’s regulars with a 140 OPS+,4 and with Byron Buxton limited to 92 games, Correa also ended up leading the team in both versions of WAR. On a team with both the electric Buxton and American League batting champion Luis Arraez, it was Correa who had the most productive season.
By September, two things were undeniable: 1) Carlos Correa was going to opt out of his contract at season’s end, and 2) I needed to make the trip up to Minneapolis to watch him play baseball in a Twins uniform while I was still sure to have the chance.
I live in North Carolina and I didn’t have much disposable income to move around this year, but I didn’t care; I couldn’t live with myself as a Minnesota sports fan if I let this opportunity pass me by.
I don’t take many pictures at Target Field anymore because I’ve been there dozens of times, but I apparently took three of Carlos while he was at the plate. Because the concept of “Carlos Correa, Minnesota Twin” just seemed so surreal.
It still does.
Baseball fans at large have a very annoying relationship with Minnesota. The constant faux-sympathy regarding lopsided results against the Yankees and the longest playoff losing streak in the history of the sport. The relentless clowning on the front office for their penny-pinching ways despite many other teams being obviously worse. Fans largely see this franchise as a cursed outpost, so their logic breaks when it experiences something good.
But as much as I wish everyone would have quit their yapping for one god forsaken minute, that isn’t how I’m going to remember this year of Carlos Correa.
I’m going to remember that one of the best shortstops in baseball history — a former first overall pick, Rookie of the Year, Platinum Glove winner and multi-time All-Star and a probable future Hall-of-Famer5 — chose to play for the Minnesota Twins.
I’ll be rooting for him in San Francisco.
There was a brief moment around midseason when his numbers were way down from normal and some faction of us, myself included, believed it would make sense for him to opt in if that production continued. Instead, he soared in the second half to end up with some of the best full-season offensive numbers of his career, rendering all of that opt-in talk nonsensical.
You can debate me on this point if you want. It’s not really Derek Falvey’s fault the Padres gave Xander Bogaerts 11 years/$280 million and threw Correa’s market into overdrive.
This piece is paywalled, so here’s a free substitute from Bleacher Report.
Heir apparent Royce Lewis finished the season with a 145 OPS+ but he only took 41 plate appearances before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
I really think he gets in despite the cheating scandal; the playoff résumé probably pushes him over the top. If the writers don’t vote him in, a committee surely will.
and the baseball world somehow kept him a twin