Twins To Sign Carlos Correa

[Whitey333]

Great signing Twins.  Totally unexpected!  Well done.  We could have signed 2-3 starting pitchers for what they are paying him for one year.  I'm hoping we still have something left to sign/ or trade/ to get more pitching.  The twins overall pitching is suspect and except for a couple, is not a major league starting staff.  Have to assume if they are paying Correa $35 million for likely one season they must be looking to improve the pitching staff.  If not, what's the point?  It is great though to finally make a  significant signing.

[Vanimal46]

7 minutes ago, ashbury said:

He might not.  Think through the worst case.  There's no such thing as a bad one-year contract.  This isn't one year.

Even the worst case possible, he is injured for the 2021 season and opts in for 2022… Why wouldn’t we want to take another $35 million chance on a 28 year old SS? 

[Otto von Ballpark]

10 minutes ago, ashbury said:

He might not.  Think through the worst case.  There's no such thing as a bad one-year contract.  This isn't one year.

Correa is elite enough, and young enough, that years 2 and 3 shouldn't hurt the Twins much under most circumstances.

If Correa gets hurt this year and has a mostly lost season, he'd probably still be command at least $25 mil on a one-year deal for 2023, just like Verlander did for 2022 coming off surgery.

[Mike Sixel]

The amount of negativity is not surprising.

My advice to young people, never become a sports fan. It's toxic.

[ashbury]

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

The amount of negativity is not surprising.

?

[Riverbrian]

10 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Except it really is.  If Correa opts in his old agent gets paid and not Boras.  That isn't happening. 

But I'm totally fine with the one year.  It's hard for this to be an utter failure unless Correa gets a massive injury.

I agree with you. This is likely a 1 year deal and it will leave the Twins with a nice piggy bank to reinvest next year. 

But... Yeah... Massive Injury is the nightmare scenario. 

 

[cHawk]

8 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

The amount of negativity is not surprising.

My advice to young people, never become a sports fan. It's toxic.

[Otto von Ballpark]

5 minutes ago, ashbury said:

?

 I think he meant "all this negativity that's in this town sucks."

 

[a-wan]

27 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

Except it really is.  If Correa opts in his old agent gets paid and not Boras.  That isn't happening. 

But I'm totally fine with the one year.  It's hard for this to be an utter failure unless Correa gets a massive injury.

This scenario reminds me of a scene from the seminal movie of the 90's, American Pie. "Oh my God, she used me. I was used. I was used. Cool"

[Brandon]

4 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

The #3 pick that year was Zunino... Let's go get him!!! 

Going for the hat trick.

[Nine of twelve]

I've decided to try to convince myself that Correa wasn't directly involved in the cheating in Houston, that he only stayed quiet because he was contractually obligated to stay there and didn't want to make waves until he left, that he has completely rehabilitated himself, and that everything he does while in Minnesota will be totally clean and great.

[Danchat]

I am 100% on board this move. They had money to spend, and $35M a year is something they could afford. I usually detest long, big money deals in most sports, especially baseball, so having it be a short term deal makes me feel better about it. The opt-outs aren't ideal, but if that's what they had to do to keep him, then so be it.

I still don't like trading Garver and getting Sanchez, but this does make dumping Donaldson far more understandable. I'd be really happy if they moved prospects for IKF and then dump Donaldson.

Not sure why the Yankees would be super disappointed - they badly wanted IKF and they got him and Donaldson and Rortvedt for a very small price. They can sign Correa in 2023 or 2024 if they want, they'll likely be able to afford him.

[howeda7]

10 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Damn! 

I cannot say I am displeased with the starting 9.

This signing certainly gives context to this goofy cryptic Tweet from yesterday:

 

I assumed this was about new chicken tenders at Target Field. 

[gman]

Good deal. I was hoping to get a shortstop from the Yankees in the Donaldson trade. It's about time we won one.?

[bean5302]

Honestly, this was an enormous discount for the Twins. Correa was projected at 10 years and $345MM so to see him sign at $103.5MM is a no brainer. It's actually quite shocking, but it may be a sign for the future in general. The owners shifted a lot of money to the younger players and that will have an impact on the veteran long term, top free agents.

Had Correa been willing to accept this deal last fall, he wouldn't have been on the market for a single day and there are a lot of front office's in baseball who are stunned by this move. 

The Twins have tended to be relatively competitive in average annual dollars for free agents before, but they've always been short on years. I would have never expected Correa to sign a contract this short at under $40MM per year.

A lot of comments about how the Twins are big spenders now... but just about any team in baseball will take a player at 1/3 of their contract value.

[h2oface]

Best article I have found/read about the deal. Some new no trade clause info, too.....

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-sign-carlos-correa.html

[Twins33]

My pipe dream came true!

[glunn]

17 minutes ago, h2oface said:

Best article I have found/read about the deal. Some new no trade clause info, too.....

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-sign-carlos-correa.html

Very informative article.  Looks like limited no trade in year one, then full no trade after that.  Nonetheless, I love this move.

[AlwaysinModeration]

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

He might not.  Think through the worst case.  There's no such thing as a bad one-year contract.  This isn't one year.

He might not opt out, it’s true, but I think it is highly likely that he does, not only for the Boras angle but also because he’ll want to go into next offseason as the top option and have more buyers driving his market.

That does lead me to the ONE quibble I can think of with this deal.  I think that a deal of 35/37/39 (or 40) might have been more likely to get him for more than one year.

Minor, minor quibble, though.

 

[bean5302]

Correa is highly likely to opt out if he's healthy this year. He'll still be going in to his age 28 season after this year. I think the Twins expect that to happen as well, but they got their bridge to Lewis, provided the Twins don't deal Lewis.

[stringer bell]

10 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

There are two catchers here. Remove one of them and insert Arraez as DH.

1. Arraez

2. Buxton

3. Polanco

4. Correa

5. Kiriloff

6. Sano

7. Kepler

8. Urshela

9. Sanchez/Jeffers

Sanó at DH for 100 games. Arraez at third, Kirilloff at first. Left field? Sometimes Kirilloff, but Larnach and maybe someone like Garlick against lefties. 

[PseudoSABR]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

Best article I have found/read about the deal. Some new no trade clause info, too.....

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-sign-carlos-correa.html

Mlbtraderumors always puts out quality work and they even continually update their articles; it's a testament to what could have been a click-hole site given the subject matter.  

[Nashvilletwin]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

Best article I have found/read about the deal. Some new no trade clause info, too.....

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-sign-carlos-correa.html

Let’s say the Twins move Correa at the deadline. If so, they would have a good chance to add at least a couple of solid players - most likely young, controllable and potentially big contributors as our new young core matures.

So for about $20MM and the possible upside for Correa we could acquire several good young players. That’s a good deal if such a situation transpires. 

[ashbury]

(Reposting from a thread where it didn't really belong...)

Warning, I'm going full-geek mode on this.  I've said before that I like to play the Out Of The Park computer baseball game.  After a slow start, this Twins offseason has become an OOTP offseason.  Namely: before making any moves, examine your roster carefully and among other things identify the salary you consider an impediment; then pay what it costs to get that salary off the books, even with lopsided trades in terms of talent.  Then, redeploy the freed up money to acquire something really good.

I'm sure every FO has a plan to guide their offseason.  I held a lot of doubt that our FO was going to be able to execute theirs.  For a long while it wasn't evident that their plan was aggressive at all.  Then for the better part of a week, it looked very much like a half-completed plan had run into a serious snag.  (Indeed, my guess is that it did, and they pivoted from Story to Correa with an offer that carries a steeper risk-to-reward ratio than is appreciated.)  But the plan now looks clear.  Several steps remain to be completed.

Next, if they can pull a OOTP style of trade involving several prospects whose Rule-5 eligibility has arrived, in return for one stud pitcher with years of team control, I'll REALLY be impressed.

 

[Otto von Ballpark]

1 hour ago, h2oface said:

Best article I have found/read about the deal. Some new no trade clause info, too.....

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-sign-carlos-correa.html

Thanks for sharing. Correa probably doesn’t mind the possibility of being traded in 2022, because he probably wants to be featured in a pennant race and postseason.

[Otto von Ballpark]

2 hours ago, Danchat said:

Not sure why the Yankees would be super disappointed - they badly wanted IKF and they got him and Donaldson and Rortvedt for a very small price. They can sign Correa in 2023 or 2024 if they want, they'll likely be able to afford him.

The Yankees may not be disappointed, but their fans are another story. And I don’t blame them — IKF is coming off a 85 wRC+, and that might be Rortvedt’s upside (ZiPS 70). Donaldson is good but also old and perhaps a little brittle — at best, it seems like he could clog up their DH spot a bit.

[Steve71]

Very stunned with this move.  Was gone out-state all day, and came home to learn of this signing.

I surmised, like many of us, that they were shifting the Donaladson money to Story.  Never dreamed that they would get Correa.

Is it likely a one year rental?  Sure.  Is it still going to make them a much stronger team this year?  Absolutely.

Me, I would have preferred spending money on FA pitching help, but they have shown a strong reluctance to get tied into long term big money deals for pitchers.

The cheating scandal stuff is tough.  I hate that they cheated and tainted their accomplishments that season.  I also can't stand the steroid era, either.  It has been 5 years, so keep him away from trash cans and we should be good.  

Interesting piece of news to be sure!

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Let’s say the Twins move Correa at the deadline. If so, they would have a good chance to add at least a couple of solid players - most likely young, controllable and potentially big contributors as our new young core matures.

So for about $20MM and the possible upside for Correa we could acquire several good young players. That’s a good deal if such a situation transpires. 

And that's if things go poorly this year!  It's a move with very little downside and a ton of upside.

It's pretty rare to pull of a trade that leaves little long term risk, lots of short term upside, improves your team, and pisses off the Yankees using them as dupes.

[Nine of twelve]

I do not believe that the Correa signing came out of the blue. That just doesn't happen when this much money is involved. My guess is that Falvey and Levine (and, of course, Pohlad), and Boras (and, of course, Correa) have been working on this for some time, possibly since before the lockout ended. The preceding transactions the Twins made were almost bizarre unless the FO knew that they had something solid in the works. That they were able to get this done with no one catching wind of it is practically miraculous.

Edited to add:

And if this season turns out to be a successful one for our favorite team Falvine will have guaranteed themselves tenure for a long, long time.

[TheLeviathan]

Live shot of @Nick Nelson working on the SS positional analysis he started: