Although it has been more than two weeks since star player Carlos Correa reached an agreement with New York Mets On a 12-year, $315 million deal, the two sides have not yet finalized the agreement. It is suspected that the filibuster stemmed from concerns the Mets had about Corea’s lower right leg.
Mets and Corea agent Scott Boras continued negotiating revised terms Thursday, But that news was accompanied by a New York Post report that Boras had “reconnected with at least one or two other interested teams.”At this point, it is not clear what is more likely: Correa and Mets finding a solution, or Boras finding better terms from another club.
If you’ve spent the past three weeks, like a well-adjusted human, minding family matters as part of the holiday season, you might be out of the loop on everything that happened with Correa. We here at CBS Sports are hardly well-tuned, so we figured we’d provide a handy explanation that answers six questions you might have about this situation.
Let’s go to her.
1. Didn’t Korea already sign with giants?
We might start here as well. Yes, Korea We technically came to an agreement with the San Francisco Giants In the form of a 13-year, $350 million contract. The Giants scheduled a press conference to introduce Corea, and he and his family went home hunting in the San Francisco area. Unfortunately, the press conference was canceled just hours before it was supposed to. Before a full day had gone by, Korea was gone You have agreed to the terms with the Mets in this contract.
2. What happened to the Giants deal?
This may sound familiar. The Giants became concerned about the long-term condition of Corea’s right lower leg during a physical. From there, well, let’s just go back to Boras’ public explanation of what happened from there.
“We reached an agreement. We got a letter of agreement and gave them a time frame to implement it,” he said. Porras told The Athletic. “They advised us that they still had questions. They still wanted to talk to other people, other doctors, and go through it.
I said, ‘Look, I’ve given you a reasonable amount of time. We need to get on with this. Give me a time frame. If you don’t intend to implement, I need to talk to other teams. “
Boras has already spoken to the other teams, which led to the current situation.
3. Why are teams worried about Korea’s leg?
Correa suffered a severe injury to his right leg while a minor league player Houston Astros the system. He had to undergo surgery as a result, and part of that operation included having a plate fitted near his ankle. Correa didn’t require a stint on the injured list because of his leg at the time, but material often has to do with predictive value rather than indicative value—that is, doctors look forward, not backward.
It stands to reason that two things are true: Doctors could be justified in highlighting Correa’s leg as an area of concern, yet Correa could remain relatively healthy regardless of the plate. Of course, this is a situation where the public and the media do not have enough information to evaluate one way or another.
4. What might the revised Korea deal include?
Theoretically, the Mets and Correa could introduce some equalizing language that would protect the club in the event Correa’s leg becomes an issue. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal explained how it would work. (Pop-up on the NBC Sports Bay area to stream the podcast.)
“The way to do it in a situation like this is to put something in the contract called an ‘exclusion clause’ which basically says that if a player spends X number of days on the injured list with that specific injury, the specific injury to that part of his leg,” Rosenthal said. Then you can void future years or lower the warranty, there are all kinds of ways to do that.” “Now obviously if you’re Korea and Boras, you don’t want that kind of language because it devalues the contract and creates uncertainty. It obviously doesn’t contain the same thing.”
It is unclear whether the parties have discussed an exclusion clause, or whether Porras and Correa are open to the possibility of cementing such a clause into the deal.
They could also add more general team options to the deal that would allow the Mets to come to the rescue if Correa’s health becomes an issue in the future.
5. Are there any other considerations in playing for the Mets?
In fact, the Mets’ situation with Korea was more difficult than that of the Giants. That’s because owner Steve Cohen may have opened his team up to a complaint from the Major League Baseball Players Association if the Mets strayed from their ranking by making public comments about Correa.
“We needed something else, and this is it.” Cohen told the New York Post after announcing the initial agreement with Korea. “This was important… This puts us over the top. This is a good team. I hope it’s a good team!”
There’s a reason executives don’t comment on players or deals until they’re official. You can understand why Cohen gets excited, but his overzealous nature could cost him here if he can’t come to terms with Boras.
6. Is Korea worth it?
yes. He’s a 28-year-old All-Star who has scored 128 OPS+ over the past three seasons while playing good defense at shortstop. CBS Sports rated him the No. 3 free agent entering the winterBehind only Aaron Judge and Jacob DeGroom. Korea is an elite player, in many words. It would be unfortunate if the events of this winter ended up obscuring that fact.