Jon Heyman

Jon Heyman

MLB

Behind Mets’ failed two-week attempt to save Carlos Correa contract

Star shortstop Carlos Correa’s long-running free agency drama finally appears to be coming to an end on Tuesday as he agreed to a six-year, $200 million deal that could be worth $270M with the Minnesota Twins.

Three weeks after he’d agreed to a $315 million, 12-year deal with the Mets and a month after the $350 million, 13-year deal with the Giants, Correa agreed to a deal to go back to where he started this exciting winter journey. Sources say the major part of the physical is complete, so there shouldn’t be any issues, as there were with Correa’s first two deals.

Correa looked for a couple weeks like he might wind up in Queens as third baseman for the Mets following Mets owner Steve Cohen’s middle-of-the-night agreement with Correa’s agent Scott Boras. The excitement was palpable when they struck that deal in the wee hours of Dec. 21, but reality set in soon, as the Mets flagged the same lower right leg issue that scuttled the Giants mega deal, and the sides tried unsuccessfully for two weeks to forge a deal both Correa and the Mets could live with.

Correa made clear his interest in coming to Queens, never more so than when he posted an Instagram story with his toddler son Kylo wearing a t-shirt that spelled out “I heart NY” using a street hot dog and pretzel to signify the first two words. But ultimately, he couldn’t accept a rewritten Mets offer that would have made half that original deal only conditionally guaranteed at fewer guaranteed dollars than the Twins are now offering. He also would have been subject to annual physical with the Mets.

Free agent shortstop Carlos Correa agreed to a six-year, $200 million deal with his old team, the Minnesota Twins, on Tuesday. AP

So Correa instead made a deal with the Twins. He agreed to a deal that fully guarantees $200M over the same six years and adds four more years at a potential additional $70M based on plate appearances. The Twins’ front-loaded arrangement was appealing, and while Correa seemed excited about the possibility of New York, he did enjoy his first year in the Twin Cities.

The Mets also were willing to fully guarantee the first six years, but that would be at $157.5M, and they proposed new conditions Correa’s camp saw as more difficult to reach, involving not just plate appearances but time in the field. While the Mets’ newly reconfigured deal might still have been called a potential $315M for 12 years, the last six years, just like with the Twins deal, would have been less than fully guaranteed. 

One difference in the Twins and Mets deals is that Correa – who had a 5.4 WAR last year when he hit .291 with 22 home runs in Minnesota – will be paid at the rate of $33.33M by the Twins in the six guaranteed years while he would have been paid $26.25M in the Mets’ offer.

Carlos Correa with his son Carlos Correa/Instagram
Mets owner Steve Cohen’s enthusiasm for pursuing Carlos Correa reportedly never waned. Newsday via Getty Images

The Mets sought to redo the deal following the physical as they saw “significant risk” in later years, or “down the road” as some were saying, though doctors are obviously unable to pinpoint when any complication related to the ankle in question might manifest itself. Cohen was said to be involved in talks in recent days, though the equation changed from the morning of the agreement when Cohen told The Post, “We needed one more thing, and this is it,” based on a two-day physical done in New York a couple days later.

Correa has never missed a day in the majors due to the ankle injury or subsequent surgery done in 2014 when he was in the minors, and, according to Boras, never even received any treatment related to the past injury. But first the Giants doctor and then the Mets doctor raised the potential issue based on his MRI exam.

Mets lawyers, along with GM Billy Eppler and Correa’s agent, spent the better part of the last couple weeks debating the relevance of the MRI and how the sides could draft new language to provide the Mets with the protection they sought to mitigate the risk. Questions like what type of recurrence should be considered (specific to the ankle or perhaps an injury that could be caused by a weakened ankle), how one determines whether he’s disabled (plate appearances, times in the field) and how much money should be fully guaranteed were all debated over the past few weeks.

Carlos Correa hit .291 with 22 homers and 64 RBIs for the Twins last season. AP

Cohen’s excitement over the signing came through the phone lines around 2:47 a.m. ET on Dec. 21 (it was only 9:47 p.m. in Hawaii, where Cohen was vacationing) and he told The Post, “This was important. … this puts us over the top.”

Mets people say Cohen’s enthusiasm for the player never waned and team officials say they tried to figure out a way to mitigate the risk while satisfying Correa over two-plus weeks, even if his signing frustrated other owners and came with a 90 percent tax, as Cohen’s team already is over the so-named “Steve Cohen tax,” which begins at $293M. The Mets payroll was to shoot up to a record $380M. It will still be a record, but it’s closer to $355M now.