Mark Berman: Astros offering Carlos Correa a 5 year/160 million dollar contract

Sweetening our offer with an opt-out or doing a 1-year deal where we have to go through this whole charade again next year is INSANE. Correa just tested the market and what he wants is not available to him. Now is our time to capitalize. The market has spoken and our previous offer appears to be better than his existing alternatives. Hold firm on our offer (at most). This is Negotiations 101, people.

 

LoL not sure where you took Negotiations 101 but you should ask for a tuition refund if you think the Astros best move is to play hardass and refuse to negotiate in good faith (or even worse, backtrack from previous offers).

 

Play hardass? Excuse me, we offered a 9-digit contract, Correa chose not to accept it, hired Scott Boras, shopped his services to all of our competitors, didn't like what he was offered by them, and now has come crawling back to us red-faced and empty-handed. And you think he has leverage? That's funny. Everything the Astros have done has been in good faith -- I can't believe you would even raise that. Makes me think you don't know what it even means.

We need to get the best deal possible to preserve money and flexibility for making our team into a World Champion again. That's not being a hardass, that's being intelligent. Maximize our scare resources. This is a business.

 

Correa is a top 5 baseball player on the entire planet. You sign him, your chances of a world series go up dramatically. One year, two years, drama, no drama, I don't care, get this man wearing an Astros jersey for the 2022 season.

 

7/280 please.

 

If you think Houston put forth their reported last offer as “best and final” and should not continue further negotiations, I don’t know what to tell you other than that’s just not how major MLB free agency works. And if you think Correa’s agents wouldn’t be able to drum up a $200M+ offer (or $45M+ 1yr offer) elsewhere, you’re wrong. His $330M+ offer probably didn’t materialize, but that by no means makes it definitive that his best offer was Houston’s <$200M offer.

 

Even without Correa, the Astros are one of the best teams in the league, they aren't at risk of "rebuilding"

This comes across as pushing agent propaganda who are worried because everyone in the league laughed at the massive demands they put out there..... now they are just trying to salvage something.

 

Damn I love Crane. Best owner in Houston sports of all time and it's not even close IMO the best part about him is he always does what he promises the fans, or at least tries.

 

But the teams that made those offers have moved on and signed other players. Conditions are not the same as when the offer was made. In a negotiation, one must constantly evaluate the other side's BATNA - best alternative to a negotiated agreement. What is Correa's BATNA now with the big market teams having signed other players and moved on? Perhaps the Yomiuri Giants? Toros de Tijuana?

HOLD FIRM on the last contract proposal. Preserve money for other team needs.

 

I’m going to assume you’re trolling with this response. Good stuff, but LOL ignore.

 

Just because other teams are not willing to give him a 10 year 300+ million dollar deal doesn't mean they are not interested in a 1 year 40 million deal. The Astros would look bad if the Dodgers signed him on a one year deal because the Astros did not want to do the same. Like you said though the Astros have a little more leverage now. I would go with a 5 year deal with a 2 year opt out to at least secure 2 years from Correa.

 

One thing working against Correa taking a 1 year deal is that Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts will be free agents next season (along with a 2nd tier of Tim Anderson and Dansby Swanson). That’s not all that lesser competition than what he faced this year (with Lindor, Seager, Baez, Story, and Semien).

Like I said, it’s fine if Correa wants to retest free agency again next year, but he would be extremely foolish not to at least lock in the option of a long term, 9 figure deal.

 

Part of the Correa reluctance has to be related to last year being the first healthy year since 2016. If he’s able to continue to show the back issues to be behind him (no pun intended) and continues to be a 7+ WAR player, he will still be the best SS available on the market with even more health assurance.

 

I just hope something happens soon. I just want it over with.

 

Part of that would also be that it's not that likely that he plays as well this season as he did last season. In his career his performance has been very up and down with a lot of injuries.

If he has an injury plagued down season, his dreams of being overpaid on a ridiculously long contract are over.

 

Right but it’s probably more likely that he has a down/injured year than another healthy mvp caliber year. There’s a LOT of downside to Correa taking a straight 1 year deal.

 

Extremely unlikely that it's only a one-year deal. More likely an opt out after one or two years. I always thought if the Astros were to sign Correa to the longest contract they have ever given it would be one of the most unique long term contracts ever seen with multiple opt outs, front loaded, and a cherry on top.

 

If he signs a six year deal. I see it being front loaded where he is making close to 40 a year for the first 2-3 years with an opt out.

 

While he was great last year… I still think he’s capable of more.

The benchmark is 2019 before the freak rib injury. He was very good… probably the most dominant stretch of his career thus far… but largely forgotten thanks to the sketchiness surrounding said injury.

Of course he’s very unlikely to simply take a 1 year deal. Most of those conjectures are being fueled by Rosenthal’s theory that any part of a deal that was negotiated prior requires commission towards his previous agents, whereas any “new” deal (esp a 1 year deal) goes all towards Boras’ commission.