Carlos Correa was a Giant. He was the face of the franchise for the next decade. He was the team’s biggest signing since Barry bonds.
Until he wasn’t.
Correa will be a Met, not a Giant. In an stunning twist, the Giants balked at Correa’s medicals and the shortstop, in turn, immediately curved San Francisco.
It all happened so fast. His physical was Monday. At 11:38 p.m. Tuesday, he’d reportedly agreed to a 12-year, $315 million deal with the Mets; a year shorter and $35 million skinnier than the contract he had with the Giants.
This is a disaster. The Giants had their introductory press conference planned. They’d made arrangements on the club level of Oracle Park’s third base side. Less than three hours before it was to begin, they hastily postponed it.
There’s no way to replace Correa immediately. There are no marquee free agents left. The offseason — which the club vowed to be a turning point and for the past week looked like a monumental step — is lost.
A Carlos Correa Giants jersey might now be the most popular gag gift for Christmas in the Bay Area.
The timeline of events began on Dec. 13, when the Giants agreed to terms with Correa on a deal that would’ve made the 28-year-old shortstop the fourth highest paid player ever. The two-time All-Star had bet on himself with a short deal in Minnesota and cashed in. Since he debuted with a Rookie of the Year season in 2015, he ranks 16th among position players in Fangraphs WAR.
Adding Correa salvaged the Giants’ offseason and injected life into a franchise bereft of a billboard-worthy star.
Then, the Giants pushed back what was expected to be Correa’s introductory press conference. The public relations snafu may become one of the most infamous moments in franchise history. Word trickled out that the team and Correa were awaiting test results from his physical. The Associated Press added that the Giants flagged a medical issue. The San Francisco Chronicle reported it wasn’t back-related. The AP journalist who broke the news said on KNBR the hang-up likely wouldn’t implode the deal.
But while most of the West Coast was already sleeping came the Giants’ worst nightmare.
Correa still needs to pass a physical with the Mets, but the defection is all but official. Correa changed his Twitter header photo from the Oracle Park skyline to a picture of his family. Mets owner Steve Cohen has already publicly commented on the mind-boggling move.
“We needed one more thing, and this is it,” Cohen told The New York Post. “This was important…This puts us over the top. This is a good team. I hope it’s a good team!”
The Giants must provide answers. If the issue in Correa’s physical was so alarming, how was Correa able to sign so quickly and for essentially the same average annual value elsewhere? Was there any tangible effort to renegotiate the deal? Was it Correa or the Giants who wanted out of the deal more? How might this affect the Giants’ reputation in the eyes of future free agents? Could Correa have been negotiating while he’d already agreed to terms? How much fault lies on Giants ownership versus the front office?
Multiple Giants officials couldn’t be reached for comment. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi released a statement.
“While we are prohibited from disclosing confidential medical information, as Scott Boras stated publicly, there was a difference of opinion over the results of Carlos’ physical examination,” Zaidi said in the statement. “We wish Carlos the best.”
Correa had back issues earlier in his career, but has been mostly healthy for the past three years — including a Platinum Glove season in 2021. His agent, Scott Boras, insists he is healthy and gave the Giants ample time to execute the deal. He indicated to The Athletic that what came up in his medical record happened “decades ago.”
“We reached an agreement,” Boras told The Athletic. “We had a letter of agreement. We gave them a time frame to execute it,” Boras said. “They advised us they still had questions. They still wanted to talk to other people, other doctors, go through it.
“I said, ‘Look, I’ve given you a reasonable time. We need to move forward on this. Give me a time frame. If you’re not going to execute, I need to go talk with other teams.”
The turn of events of this magnitude is unprecedented in MLB. That it happened to the Giants doesn’t make them a laughingstock, it makes them something worse for the fifth most valuable franchise: pitiful. Poor guys.
Correa was the first superstar free agent to agree to come to San Francisco since Barry Bonds in 1992. Now his name belongs on the list with Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge as players the Giants couldn’t reel in.
Correa was supposed to change the narrative. He was proof that the Giants were ready to behave like the big market team they are. When SF agreed to terms with the shortstop, no team had spent more than the Giants this cycle. He was the first signature move of the Farhan Zaidi era.
Instead, the Giants are left with Mitch Haniger, Sean Manaea, and Ross Stripling. The reality after the Correa mess is that this winter will go down as one of the most dramatic, public whiffs in baseball history. They finished second for Aaron Judge. They had Carlos Correa for a week. Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson played musical chairs and the record scratch has left the Giants on the outside.
There is no way for the Giants to recover in the immediate term. There are no free agents in the same stratosphere as Correa remaining. Correa was Plan B. Plan C is destined to be starless and uninspiring.
Bringing in Correa would have changed everything for the Giants. It would have invigorated the fan base and begun a new era for the franchise.
Now, kicked in the teeth and staggering to their feet, the Giants are back at square one.