CORREA ERA ENDS

The Carlos Correa era has officially come to an end in Houston. The Astros drafted Correa #1 overall in the 2012 MLB Amateur Draft. 3 years later he made his Major League debut for the Astros, and ended up winning the AL Rookie of the Year in 2015.

Correa was apart of the Astros huge breakdown and rebuild program put in place by former GM Jeff Luhnow. That break down saw the Astros, who had never lost 100 games in a season in their history, lose 100+ for 3 straight seasons from 2011-2013. That allowed then to pick up high draft picks to start their rebuild, and it was 2015, Correa's rookie season, that the Astros were back in the playoffs since 2005 when they were swept in the World Series.

For the next 6 seasons, the Astros became not only a perennial playoff contender, they were serious World Series contenders, having gone to 3, and winning one in 2017. So it's safe to say, that plan put forth by Luhnow worked to perfection.

When you are as successful as the Astros have been, it means you have to have a lot of successful players. When you have a lot of successful players, you have to eventually pay those players. Unless you're teams like the Yankees or Dodgers, who don't care how much they spend because they make boatloads of money in the markets they're in, most everyone else can't pay everybody. That includes the Astros.

During the course of the last 6 years, the Astros found themselves having to let go of guys like Cy Young award winner Dallas Keuchel and World Series MVP George Springer. Tough to see guys like them go, but as mentioned, you can't pay everybody. And the Astros, considered a mid-market team, even though they play in the 4th largest city in America, already had the 3rd or 4th highest payroll in MLB. I mean, they were up there in spending with the big boys.

In 2021, all season long Correa expressed his desire to remain an Astro for life. He would become a free agent at the end of the '21 season, but an extension from the Astros never came. At the end of the season, a season that saw him not only win a Gold Glove for being the best defensive player at his position (SS), he won a Platinum Glove, which is for the best defensive player at any position, Carlos had hit the free agent market. The Astros did make him an offer, 5 years, $160,000,000, but Correa, was looking for a much longer term deal, in the range of 10 years, and at least $300,000,000. The Astros, in particular owner Jim Crane, was adamant that the Astros weren't doing long term deals like that for anybody. And considering Correa's injury history, you couldn't blame the Astros for not wanting make an exception and do a long term deal like that.

On December 2, 2021, the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the owners and the players expired, and MLB was put on lockout. That meant no player transactions, trades or signings, could take place. So negotiations for free agents were halted. That lockout ended on March 10, 2022. During the lockout, Correa had fired his previous representation and hired Scott Boras. If anyone could get Correa his $300M+ it would be Boras. A problem arose though. While Correa's former agent had been in negotiations with teams before the lockout, if Correa changed agents and signed a deal with any of those teams, the former agent would still get a piece of the pie. Well, Boras wasn't going to do a mega deal with someone and not get all of the commission. So that meant that they might be seeking a shorter term deal, as short as a 1 year deal, and then sign the mega deal next year where Boras would get the entire commission.

That gave hope that the Astros could still be in contention for Carlos for at least 1 more season. With Justin Verlander returning, and the Astros still with a potent lineup, their World Series contending window was still open. Not only would Correa's bat and defense help in getting to a possible 6th straight ALCS and 4th World Series in 6 years, but his leadership would be invaluable. Jim Crane even said the Astros would start talks with Correa again. This is 4 days after the lockout ended (March 14).

For the next few days we heard nothing coming from the Astros. Then around midnight on Saturday, March 18, Twitter blew up with the announcement that Carlos Correa was signing with ..... the Minnesota Twins? WTF?? Not only was he signing with the Twins, it was a 3 year deal worth $105,300,000. That's $35.1M per year, which makes him the highest paid player, per year, in MLB. One caveat though, there's an opt out after every season. That means that after this upcoming 2022 season with the Twins, Carlos will likely opt out and go sign his mega deal somewhere. Unless he's injured or has a really bad season, he's not staying in Minneapolis.

The first thing going through Astros fans minds upon hearing this news, is why on earth couldn't the Astros have at least matched that? Their initial offer was $32M per year for 5 years. They couldn't have done $35M per for something shorter than that, 1, maybe 2 years, again, while their window is still open? This just didn't make any sense. The Twins were a 73 win team last year, last place in their division, there's no way Carlos would have chosen them over the Astros, a World Series contender, with a similar offer on the table.

The problem with that is, we're finding out that there was no offer on the table from the Astros at all. Another WTF?? Reports were coming out that the Astros were not returning calls or texts from Boras or Correa, that they basically ghosted them. Then Carlos confirms it Wednesday saying that he wanted to go back to Houston, but he never heard from the Astros. That would explain those few days when we heard nothing. Well, Team Correa apparently wasn't hearing anything from them either. This makes absolutely no sense. Why would the Astros, Jim Crane himself, say they were reengaging with Correa, and then flat out lie about it? Why would would the Astros not want Correa back for another year, even if it were just a 1 and done? 

Astros prospect Jeremy Peña is not only expected to make his MLB debut on Opening Day, but he's expected to take over starting SS duties previously held by Correa. It appears the Astros have elected to pass on the best defensive player in baseball, a player they offered $32M per year for 5 years to, and not even have the balls to answer the phone and tell him, and go with an unproven 3rd round rookie instead.

I don't know what the Astros were thinking here, especially since they haven't said much of anything about it, but this has been about as strange as it gets. And that's saying something when it comes to Houston sports.