The Carlos Correa saga is over, with the shortstop landing back with the Minnesota Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal. Before that conclusion to a strange winter in which the two-time All-Star agreed to two previous deals, the Giants made one last push for him.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters Thursday that San Francisco had “a couple conversations,” with Correa’s camp once it became clear the Mets wouldn’t execute their contract.
“I don’t want to get more detailed than that, but we did have some conversations,” Zaidi said. “And as I referenced, it sounded like they had other things they were more focused on.”
In early December, Correa and the Giants agreed on a 13-year, $350 million deal that would’ve been one of the largest contracts in MLB history. But the Giants were alarmed by an ankle injury Correa suffered in 2014, which they learned more about during the medical review process. They weren’t comfortable executing the deal at the time, so Correa and his agent, Scott Boras, pivoted to the New York Mets.
In late December, Zaidi said the Giants organization was “totally unified every step of the way.”
The Mets signed Correa to a 12-year, $315 million contract, but they too expressed concerns about the shortstop’s ankle during his physical examinations. Boras said that the Giants and Mets both used the same doctor.
Asked if the Giants felt vindicated that another team spiked the deal with Correa because of medical concerns, Zaidi said “not at all.”
“Like I said, I’m happy for Carlos, he’s one of the great players in the game, he seems happy with where he’s going,” Zaidi said. “I think this whole situation was really unfortunate. In a perfect world, way (less) public if things were running in an ideal way. We’re going to stick to our process. the only vindication that we’re seeking, that we put any credibility in, is being a good team on the field. That’s our focus right now.”
In his introductory press conference with the Twins, Correa said he was surprised to learn that doctors could have such differences of opinions. He has never hit the injured list with ankle problems in his eight MLB seasons and was shocked at how his free agency process went down.
In failing to land Correa, Aaron Judge or another superstar free agent, the Giants remain bereft of a franchise cornerstone. They lost Carlos Rodón, Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria to free agency while retaining Joc Pederson and adding Mitch Haniger, Michael Conforto, Ross Stripling, Sean Manaea, Taylor Rogers and Luke Jackson.
“Very happy for (Correa),” Zaidi said. “Hope he has a long, healthy, successful run there. We have to run our process. I frankly think probably too many words have been written and said about the situation already. I think everyone feels that in a perfect world, everything that happened over the past month would’ve happened behind closed doors and not in the public eye, which I think made things difficult not just for him and his family but for other teams and people involved. Happy for him. He seems to be in a good spot. And we’re obviously turning our focus to the 2023 Giants. We’re excited about a lot of the additions that we made.”
