You can't compare Correa to Altuve. Altuve is an iron man. He has a history of excellent health and has held up amazingly well. Correa's history indicates a very different outcome. He could beat the odds but It seems like a long shot. Keeping my fingers crossed.
He's been healthy the past two years with an OPS of around .840 and has been exceptional defensively and a great leader. He is not hobbled. Could he get there? Yes but so can any other player.
Such a heart warming relationship between a star professional athlete and his scrappy agent. They should make a movie like that.
Obviously the San Francisco Giants saw an area of concern that any prudent person should have when listening to their medical staff. Can Correa play out his contract healthy? Maybe! But, I wonder why the Mets reduced offer compared to the Giants was so quickly acceptable after the Giants saw what they saw on the medical reports (down from 350 to 315 million). Which in turn caused a massive celebration from Correa? Could it be that even Correa has doubt he’ll be elite for more that 3 or 4 years of the contract life. The Giants stated that they cannot talk about the medical issue, as that is protected by law; and Giants could find themselves paying a lot more than the contact if they got sued. So it’s likely we will never know; obviously the only ones that aren’t liable for what is said is Correa’s camp and they can make up any story they want. The Astros know too, and that is why they were scared to offer him the 10 year deal Correa demeaned.
I must say even I was shocked how quickly the Astros were apt to move on from Correa. I know long term injury concern was a point of debate. The situation turned out okay for the Astros, but all things being equal Correa is a generational player, and Peña is a grind it out and earn it with passion and desire type player. However Peña offers financial flexibility the Astros needed. So I have a question for you Nick, are you of the opinion the Giants got cold feet because they got hoodwinked into bidding against themselves? Or that the Giants have legitimate concerns of the 2014 ankle injury? My opinion is the Giants saw the medical report and it says his health is holding on via bandages and pins, and will deteriorate within x number of years.
I'm certainly not a Doctor, but Bagwell and his situation with Arthritis comes to mind when an issue is an old fracture. Normally it heals and are done with it. But sometimes not. https://www.verywellhealth.com/arthritis-causes-and-risk-factors-2549243 Most studies involve those already diagnosed with arthritis, but the old timers would blame old injuries as the starting point of their arthritis.
Not Nick, but I think there were legitimate concerns later in his career that Giants agreed to the deal knowing about (i.e. they thought he would produce enough early in the career to justify end of the career concerns). After the agreement, the owner got cold feet, but didn't say they were not going to do the deal for a few days. Boras pushed then, and Correa decided to go to the Mets when the Giants didn't go through with the deal.
A year ago I was rear ended and the air bag broke my thumb right at the first knuckle. I still don't have full strength in it for stuff like opening zip lock bags and such. The doctor told me I would get arthritis because WHERE the fracture was - right at the joint.
What the Giants did was what I was hoping that the Texans would do when they traded Hopkins. I was hoping that they would find an issue in David Johnson's medical. If they were smart they would have.
The story's come out. They were concerned about a leg injury from 2014, when he was in the minors. It feels like the Giants got cold feet on the deal and found an excuse. Your feeling probably always was that this was a bad deal. And now, confirmation bias rears up and you feel like you were correct. Because look, he's got a preexisting injury! Honestly, you may be right, the future is unknown. But to say that "any prudent person should have been concerned" when talking about a leg injury he suffered as a teenager, that's never caused him to miss a game in the big leagues, is quite the stretch. The Mets had the next highest bid, after the Giants. He went with the second highest bid when the Giants backed out. He got his 300+ million dollars. It's not rocket science to see why he jumped to the Mets. Plus, he's going to be on a winner, surrounded by talent, which was far from a sure thing in SF.
I don’t think he’d be getting 10 year offers from the Twins of all teams if he was that injured. He’s played in 89% of games over the last 3 years. Thats better than most star players, let alone highly paid star players (or even Astros star players). The back never required surgery and has stabilized itself via better training regimens and again, didn’t seem to be an issue for this deal. Obviously all players are going to age and some will age poorly…. But Correa’s trajectory of games played is far better than say a Rendon, Springer or Trout. For some reason, he will always be polarizing here and people will figure he’s on his last legs… while he’s about to enter year 9 and still has one of the most impressive cumulative WAR despite games missed. I do think the Giants decided they weren’t going to contend with this roster any time soon against the likes of the Dodgers/Padres and they decided to punt. Once they lost out on Judge, they may have just went all in on Correa just to go all in on somebody. Eventually that front office (or ownership) decided to go another direction.
You can make a case either way. So it really boils down to whatever preconceived notion you began with.
So lets think about this story for a moment. There are only four ways to attribute this news. The doctor and the Giants are restricted by law from telling why the physical was a concern and have nothing to gain by leaking any reason, real or invented. Carlos got what he wanted and does not care. That leaves only his honest and forthright agent Scott Boras. I am waiting for confirmation before I accept the 2014 leg injury story.
Correa was replaced by Pena. Astros didn’t miss a beat. Everything else doesn’t matter. He got his money…just wasn’t worth it for the Astros.
