Clare

This morning I was woken up to, “I know your alarm is set for 8:30, but you need to wake up and see who you just signed for three years, $105mm.” I sleepily sat up as the name Carlos Correa was uttered, and I rolled over to check my phone, which had 105 notifications from Twitter, texts, and various news outlets. I am not a morning person, so waking up and being slammed with big news was not the way to start my day. 
Since coming back from the lockout, the Minnesota Twins have made some wild trades. It hasn’t felt like the usual off-season Twins front office with the acquisitions made.  The front office is actually making moves, and shocking moves at that. The first shock was trading out Mitch Garver to the Texas Rangers for shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and minor league righthander Ronny Henriquez. Not a blockbuster deal by any means, but for fans who are attached to players, seeing Garver traded was a slap in the face. 
Kiner-Falefa wasn’t with the Twins that long. The front office pulled a double-play and traded Kiner-Falefa, Ben Rortvedt, and fan-favorite Josh Donaldson to the Yankees for Gary Sanchez and third baseman Gio Urshela. To say the fan base was shocked is an understatement, more like gobsmacked. Sanchez has been a liability both at and behind the plate since 2018. So when the front office decided to keep Sanchez instead of using him in a trade, the fans were less than pleased. The Twins also signed a deal with Chi Chi Gonzales and picked up catcher Jose Godoy.
The tornado of trades and the deafening silence after made Twins fans nervous. The Twins, not having a full roster of starting pitching and no shortstop, left rumors about Frankie Montras, Trevor Story, and Sean Manea in talks eating at the fans. We shed tons of players and salary, so what were we waiting on the front office to do? Free agents continued to sign with other teams, and it was beginning to feel like just a typical year in the Twins front office, clear salary and doing nothing. 
That all changed in the early morning of Saturday, March 19th, when Mark Berman from Fox 26 in Houston, that the Twins had a deal with Houston Astros shortstop, Carlos Correa. 
Twitter had spent six hours in excitement and losing their minds before I even was ‘scheduled’ to be awake. The one part of the acquisition I liked was that Houston and Yankees fans were both highly agitated and that was almost enough to make the contract worth it!
Once, I could sound off a couple of foul-mouthed tweets trying to figure out where this came from, considering I went to sleep praying that we would get some information on Trevor Story; I was majorly confused. The Twins made a HUGE acquisition, but they also pulled some considerable rabbit out of their “I’ll show you” hat either to 1. prove they could pay that much for someone, or 2. wanted fans to be proud of them, which they did both. But not all fans. It’s me; I’m that fan. 
I take baseball very seriously. It’s personal to me for many reasons, so when we pulled a player from the 2017 Astros, I was not too fond of it. The 2017 Astros not only cheated to win the World Series but also received immunity and not a single punishment. That felt like an injustice to baseball, and I have written off the players and the team. Everything that I loathed about that time was staring directly at me, including my moral compass about being a baseball fan and happy for my team. 
I am not a fan of Correa. I am still upset that he would insult the game like that. I know teams cheat; I am not naïve or blind; I was frustrated with how Major League Baseball and the Commissioner handled everything. It took me a few moments and rambling conversations in the shower while I got dressed and with my group chat. My group chat consists of avid female Twins fans from everywhere. While I was supportive online, I was honest about my frustration in my group, and one friend chimed in and made a good point, “The cheating isn’t allowed in this Twins culture, and once players leave Houston, the stigma tends to be to leave as well. This [sic] (being with the Twins) is the Carlos Correa Redemption Tour.” I liked that; it means that I don’t have to like Correa or the trade, but it gives me a mindset to be good support for my followers and other fans. 
There is no doubt at all that Correa’s numbers are good. They are downright impressive. 2017 was also a long time ago. It may take me a while to get there, but I did say this morning, and I will say again, “if he has changed and he is good for the boys, and they are happy, then I am happy for everyone else.” Being a fan of a team means being objective and also wanting to win championships, and I believe that is what the Twins front office is trying to do. 
Carlos Correa agrees to 3-year/$105.3M contract with Twins | SportsCenter
I am happy and impressed that we have pulled a player like Correa, but we still need starting pitchers. We are going to have to concede some pieces for that to happen. I wish we would have gotten pitching and then a shortstop, but now that we have the big piece, we need to continue building around that, and thinking about what will come from that is unnerving, because it’s clear, the Twins front  office isn’t done. 
So while I am excited to see what we can do or choose to do with starting pitching, I also know that there will be a sacrifice in players who made the same fans this morning who were happy…extremely upset. You have to take the good with the bad, the attachments with the releases, and the business with the emotions. 
That’s baseball. 

Here is my theoretical letter to the Twins ownership and to the agent for Byron Buxton concerning to current negotiations to extend Buxton’s contract.
A Letter to Falvey/Levine/Pohlad and B.B. Abbott
Dear Sirs:
It is my understanding that all of you are in basic agreement concerning the base salary for an extension for Byron Buxton and that the holdup is the incentives.  Because your negotiations are done in private (as they should be), I have no idea what the concerns of each side might be.  Here are my suggestions.
Make the base salary $12M per year beginning in 2022 and extending for an additional seven years for a total base contract of 8/$96M.  The incentive plan should be have a base with achievable goals and extending to difficult to reach goals with significant rewards for attaining them.  Below is a table showing some possible goals and bonuses attached to each goal.  The minimum amount of bonus that can be earned would be $8M and is based on Buxton having an above league average season for an outfielder.  The maximum attainable bonus would be $21.5M but would mean that Buxton would be the best player in baseball.  But the amount of the bonus would be offset partially by increased revenues caused by every baseball fan in America wanting to see Buxton play in person.
Games 100 120 130 140 150 160         Bonus $1.0M $1.25M $1.5M $1.75M $2.0M $2.5M         Hits 140 160 180 200 220 240         Bonus $1.0M $1.25M $1.5M $1.75M $2.0M $2.5M         Home Runs 20 25 30 35 40 45         Bonus $1.0M $1.25M $1.5M $1.75M $2.0M $2.5M         Stolen Bases 20 25 30 35 40 45         Bonus $1.0M $1.25M $1.5M $1.75M $2.0M $2.5M         MVP Voting 10th 9th 8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st Bonus $1.0M $1.25M $1.5M $1.75M $2.0M $2.5M $3.0M $3.5M $4.0M $5.0M Gold Glove Voting 3rd 2nd 1st               Bonus $1.5M $3.0M $4.5M               Platinum Glove Voting 1st                   Bonus $2.0M                     I understand that this commitment would be a significant financial investment but only if Buxton provides the level of performance that should be rewarded.  If you have any questions, I can be reached through Twins Daily.