Scott Boraswho was at Yankee Stadium on Thursday for Carlos Rodon‘s introductory news conference, spoke with reporters about the situation revolving around his client Carlos Correathe Mets, and the San Francisco Giants.
Boras, who said Correa’s physical with the Mets is taking place on Thursday, told reporters “there is no current issue with Carlos’ health whatever.”
After talks with the Giants fell apart on Tuesday — the day of what was to be Correa’s news conference to introduce him as a Giant — with San Francisco refusing to honor the letter of intent to sign Correa following his physical, Boras reengaged with the Mets and Minnesota Twins, and a 12-year, $315 million deal was struck with the Mets early Wednesday morning with Steve Cohen and Billy Eppler working with Boras to hammer out details.
As far as when Correa’s contract with the Mets could become official should he pass his physical, Boras said it’s usually a 24-to-48 hour process and that the deal could be done by Christmas.
“There’s been a lot of discussions about backs and ankles,” Boras said. “There’s nothing about him that is currently any form of medical issue. All the conjecture and evaluation of him has been about physicians using their crystal ball for years to come.
“When you are in the picture, before a player ever comes into town, before teams ever offer contracts, before they do things, we provide them with comprehensive medical records — all the imaging that has been taking place prior to that.
“So they have a full account of the player prior to doing anything that has to do with offers. And that’s my point on this. You have franchises that are getting those records, they’re reviewing it, they’re reviewing everything about it … They’re fully aware that the player has been in complete health in the current, and that’s the information they have.”
Before coming to terms with the Mets, Correa had agreed to sign a 13-year, $350 million deal with the Giants, but San Francisco flagged something during his physical.
Reports have indicated that what was flagged was an old injury from before Correa’s big league career that had not been a problem during his eight seasons in the majors.
“Normally when you do physicals, you’re looking at what’s going on with the player today and making sure,” Boras explained. “We had a complete history done, a complete physical done by Dr. Camp of the Minnesota Twins when he left the Twins — a complete review. And got a long letter passing him, and with that came a recommendation for over a 10- year contract. So that was the known of the Minnesota team physician who was with him all year long in the current. That’s the most known and current appraisal that we had going into free agency. That letter and that review was given to all teams.
“It’s comfortable to have a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon tell you that you’re healthy going forward [at] 28 years of age, and you’re heading into free agency. We were very comfortable with the information provided. And in addition to that, we had reviews done by some of the most prominent orthopedic surgeons prior. And all those reviews were given to all the teams. And those doctors are ready and available for any discussion [with] any team physician of potential new teams.”
Speaking specifically about Correa’s ankle, Boras said they made the physician who performed Correa’s ankle surgery in 2014 available to teams to discuss “the stability and the functionality of what he felt.”
“Amazingly, the player has never had any form of treatment or anything to do about that since that occurred when he was 19 years old.
“We’ve been very thorough in our process and very thorough in what we’ve presented to all the teams, very transparent. That’s about the best you can do when you go through free agency with a player.”