In a shocking development, Carlos Correa has agreed to join the Mets for a 12-year, $315MM contract, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports (Twitter link). Correa had previously agreed to a 13-year, $350MM deal with the Giants, yet reports surfaced yesterday that an unknown issue with Correa’s medicals had led to a postponement of the Giants’ introductory press conference for the shortstop. Correa is represented by the Boras Corporation.
As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweetsthe “Giants flagged something in [Correa’s] physical and doctors disagreed.” Slusser also reported yesterday that Correa’s back wasn’t the issue, although back soreness has sent the former All-Star to the injured list on multiple occasions during his career.
Whatever the Giants took issue with in Correa’s physical, obviously the problem wasn’t enough to deter the Mets from adding yet another high-priced star to their already loaded roster (and payroll). Mets owner Steve Cohen said last week that the team tried to make a late bid of around $300MM to land Correa, but that offer was turned down by agent Scott Boras since talks with the Giants had already reached an advanced stage.
As it turned out, that late attempt from Cohen was seemingly all Boras needed to secure another mega-deal for his client quickly after the agreement with San Francisco fell apart. Correa’s new contract with New York is one year shorter and worth slightly less in average annual value ($26.25MM with the Mets compared to $26.92MM with the Giants). It is also “only” now the 10th-largest contract in baseball history in terms of total value, while the $350MM deal with San Francisco was the fourth-largest in history.
Still, the deal handily surpasses MLBTR’s projection of a nine-year, $288MM pact for Correa. Like the structure of the original Giants contract as well as other deals signed by Xander Bogaerts and Trea Turner this winter alone, the longer length allows the team to spread out the luxury-tax hit over more years, while the player still gets his money as well as extra security. Correa is entering his age-28 season, so he is now locked up through his age-39 campaign.
More to come…
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