Somehow, Carlos Correa is still in limbo.
Last we heard, the Mets had similar concerns as the Giants in regards to Correa’s physical, specifically an ankle / leg issue that spoiled the deal between the shortstop and San Francisco. Correa is believed to still want to get a deal done with the Mets but was not keen on a restructure, something it seems New York would be set on considering the initial 12-year, $315 million contract hasn’t been signed.
So what’s next? According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Mets, Correa and his agent Scott Boras are likely working on a new deal that includes clauses to protect the team should Correa get injured.
“So how does this get resolved? Well one problem here, at least for Correa and his agent Scott Boras, is that the Mets really have all the leverage,” Rosenthal said on The Athletic Baseball Show. “If you look at the situation, two times he has been flagged for the same problem for his physical. It would be extremely difficult for him to go back into the open market and say ‘OK let’s go, 10 years, $300 million, who’s in?’ That’s not happening most likely, because I can’t imagine that other teams are going to look at this much differently.”
“The way to do it in a situation like this is to put something in the contract called an ‘exclusion clause’ and that basically says if a player spends X number of days on the injured list with this specific injury, the specific injury to that part of his leg, then you can void future years or you can lower the guarantee, there are all kinds of ways to do it,” Rosenthal continued. “Now obviously if you’re Correa and Boras you don’t want this kind of language because it lowers the value of the contract and creates this uncertainty.”
In addition to exclusions, Rosenthal also expects the terms of the deal to change significantly.
“We expect the Mets to get this done at some point,” Rosenthal adds. “We expect it to be a dramatically different deal. It’s not going to be 12 years, $315 million guaranteed. The question again is to what extent does the language change, the deal change and how is Carlos Correa going to be once he gets through all this? Will he be a happy Met, will he be upset? Who knows.”
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi — who spoke for the first time publicly about the incident last Friday — said he doesn’t believe the Giants still have a shot at Correa despite the uncertainty with the Mets. As Rosenthal pointed out, Correa hitting the market for a third time this offseason would not be good for his value, and the best case for him is probably a shorter term deal with a high annual average value.
Originally, the Giants reportedly agreed to a 13-year, $350 million deal with Correa, but expressed concerns after his physical examination shortly before he was set to be introduced as a Giant. Zaidi says that the Giants organization was completely unified in the decision to scrap the deal, which saw Correa agree to a new contract with the Mets less than 24 hours after it fell through.