Carlos Correa to the Twins - 3 Years, $105 Million

Ramirez was already under contract for 2 more years and is 2 years older than Correa. Cleveland is basically paying $25MM/yr for age 32-36 for Ramirez, making it a lot like Springer's contract.

Correa was completely different in that he's still entering his prime years.

 

Ramirez wasn't going to be a FA for 2 more years and would be 31 by then. Who knows what kind of contract he'd have available - he'd have been in Springer's shoes. The real discount was the last extension he signed in 2017 (4 years, $26MM total) for his prime years - also signed 2 years before FA if I'm seeing it right.

 

Ramirez is a far better player than Springer.

 

Sure - right now he is. In 2 years? Who really knows. And Springer got paid in part for his postseason success as well.

Ramirez didn't give a discount to Cleveland. He traded his upside for certainty and not having to worry about how good he is or what the market is like in 2 years.

 

They seem comparable.

José Ramírez
9 years in league
.855 OPS
34.3 WAR
5.7 WAR per 162

George Springer
8 years in league
.857 OPS
30.2 WAR
5.6 WAR per 162

 

Cleveland called Ramirez up too early because they didn’t know what they had. He was an average player his first 2+ seasons in the majors. Compare them from 2016 on (or from age 23 on) and you’ll see the difference.

 

New TV money and a rebound in attendance post-Covid should lead to contract values going up overall for the stars in the league.

Yes, always a risk to wait till FA given possible injuries, etc., however he may have been wiser to negotiate an opt out after year 2 to account for this expected increase.

Baseball players ultimately do have longevity... even if some get injured often yearly. Only the most catastrophic or chronic of injuries will lead to a career ending early. Both teams and players should know this, and I could easily see players now looking for more short-term deals with excepted market corrections while teams may want to lock players in for longer deals to counter-act that. Almost flipping the script of what was the norm from 2-3 years ago.

 

Do you have CLEAR? If you do, I assume you're aware that you can use it at Target Field, gate 34?

 

He didn't spend much time in the heat. AC House to AC car to AC MMP. In Minnwesota, heated House to heated car to FROZEN Target Field.

 

You assume people just spend their entire time that they are not working sitting at home?

Pretty sure athletes have managed to live in cold places and survive for the last hundred years without too much of a problem. It's bizarre the weird things people come up with for why Correa may regret his decision.

 

Perhaps the reason is that, apart from a few winter sports. everybody I ever knew who lived in a cold climate stayed indoors as much as possible longing for the warmth of Spring.

 

I'm not sure what CLEAR is so I guess not.

 

Clear gets you through airport security faster. A handful of stadiums also use it including Target field.

 

Sounds good. Will have to look into it. Unfortunately these days I dont' travel or go see games enough to have gotten something like that.

 

Part of the Barry Bonds PED regimen?

 

I think that dude is just really really really risk averse. I get that. He guaranteed himself $150 million in lifetime earnings. Good for him. Not everyone is willing to take the dice to maximize every last dollar. if someone offered me 75% for life of what I made in 2021 as a salary and not a dollar less during my working years I’d take that in a heartbeat- even though, by definition it’s less money than I have already made, and potentially much less money at that, than I could make, I’d still do it because this is the terror of a salesman/self employed small business owner. Maybe he feels the same way. I would totally get it. You only have one career- nothing wrong with minimizing risk that could come from big time injury or from sudden loss of performance.

 

Just saw the lineup for the Twins first game with Buxton top of the order and Correa 2nd. I wonder if Buxton said, it's okay if you join this team but this time I'm FIRST!

 

No body booed Correa at Target Field but a guy behind me said “He’s growing on me but I still really want to hate him”

saw a few Correa Twins jerseys in the crowd

 

Correa had a good opening day. Some web gems outta the gate.

 

I miss him already.

DD