Carlos Correa Goes To The City By The Bay On Monster Contract
Carlos Correa and the San Francisco Giants are in agreement on a 13 year, $350 million contract. The fourth largest contract by total value in MLB history.
On December 6, a tweet was released that made it seem like Linden, California native Aaron Judge would return to his home state to play for his childhood favorite team, the San Francisco Giants for the rest of his career.
Of course, not only did the news turn out to be false, but Judge ended up back in New York, signing a $360 million contract to be a Yankee for 9 more seasons.
That stung Giants fans, and it made the offseason look to be a failure.
The Giant’s front office knew they needed a star, and pivoted their attention elsewhere, determined to land the Giants a face of the franchise type of player in the aftermath of Buster Posey’s somewhat shocking retirement one year earlier. A star to sell tickets and lead them back to October baseball.
The Giants found that in Carlos Correa on December 13.
Correa, who is only entering his age 28 season, has established himself as one of those players in the league.
Whether you like him or not you have to admit that the 2017 World Series champion always stands up for his teammates and he can play great baseball.
The 2012 number one overall pick by the Houston Astros made his debut as a 20-year-old in 2015, and won the rookie of the year despite only playing in 99 games. Since then Correa has struggled with some injuries, but when he was on the field he was an all-star to superstar talent.
In 2021, his last season under contract with the Astros, he was a top-five finisher in the American League MVP voting and won the platinum glove.
After that impressive season, he signed a 3-year contract with the Minnesota Twins, which had an opt-out after the first year.
In his 2022 season with the Twins, Correa played in 136 games and hit 22 home runs, had a .291/.366/.467 slash line, which was good for a 140 OPS+. In other words, he was better than 40% of all MLB hitters.
Obviously, Correa opted out of his contract and entered free agency once again. With a career 129 OPS+, a good defensive reputation, and a 39.5 rWAR at 28, Correa was seen as one of the top free agents heading into the offseason yet again.
Yes, Correa warranted a lot of money and a lot of years, but at an annual average value of 26.9 million, this isn’t an overpay especially with how inflation could impact the perception of the contract over the 13 years. The injury risk with Correa isn’t really there anymore either, playing in 342 of 384 possible regular season games the past 3 years.
We know that the final years of the contract will be painful as Correa enters his late 30’s and early 40’s, but with so much prime still ahead, this can only be seen as a massive win for the Giants.
And for Correa, he has the largest total value contract for an infielder in MLB history, a home for the next 13 years, and a franchise that has proven it wants to win.
It’s important to note that this contract comes with security both for Correa and the team, with a full no-trade clause and no opt-outs being included in the deal.
The Giants proved who they are with this signing, they could’ve just sat around after losing out on Judge, but instead, they got a superstar and some nice supporting pieces in Joc Pederson, Mitch Haniger, Sean Manea, and Ross Stripling.
The Giants are still behind the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but this closes the gap and makes battles with the two rivals much more interesting. Not only in terms of evening the playing field, but few players are hated in rival cities more than Carlos Correa is hated in Tinseltown.
This move made too much sense after Judge went back to New York, I called this would happen in my updated offseason predictions article, but I thought it would be 12 year deal instead of 13 years for $350 million.
If you’re a giants fan you need to have a huge smile on your face, and the 2023 season and beyond is looking really exciting once more.
