NEWSLETTER
I gotta say up front: I actually respect the honesty.
I mean, I think Carlos Correa does care about things like competitiveness, and city, and family life, and all that, but at the end of the day, he is only saying out loud the thing we all already know to be true about top free agents: THEY WANT TO GET PAAAAAAAAID.
Here’s Correa answering what the Minnesota Twins can do to keep him around after this season:
There may already be concerns in the Twins organization that, not only is Correa going to opt out of his deal and head into free agency (that’s a guarantee at this point), but also that the Chicago Cubs, specifically, might be ready to pounce with a monster offer. That was primarily local speculation, but it does track that the Cubs would have interest for any number of reasons.
Now the Cubs know they’ll simply have to go shopping in the luxury department if they want to sign Correa. At age 28, and with a track record of high-level success, Correa is going to be paid handsomely in free agency. I still don’t think he gets that ten-year deal, but I would be very surprised if he didn’t have options that guaranteed him well over $200 million, spread over varying numbers of years.
Will Carlos Correa approach $250 million? I tend to think yes? There were rumors, you’ll recall, that the Cubs were trying to get him on a seven-year deal last time around (rumored to be over $210 million guaranteed), and that didn’t get the deal done at the time. I tend to think the FLOOR – if on a seven-year deal – is going to be the seven-year deal Anthony Rendon got, which was a $35 million AAV (which just so happens to be the AAV Correa would be opting out of with the Twins, albeit for only two more years). That would top Francisco Lindor’s deal in AAV, and then it could also top Rendon’s for total dollars. Just thinking out loud here in late September …
