Different medical opinions led Carlos Correa back to the Twins
It's fairly clear now that Carlos Correa is back with the Minnesota Twins because Giants and Mets doctors were more worried about the long-term health of his surgically-repaired ankle than Twins doctors are.
"It was a lot of challenges thrown at us," Correa said at a press conference Wednesday, "but at the end of the day [my agent Scott Boras] got me to a place where I'm happy, where I feel right at home, where I'm going to have a chance to win every single year."
How did Correa wind up in Minnesota after initially agreeing to deals with the Giants and Mets? Medical opinions.
"Doctors have a difference of opinions. I had a lot of doctors tell me that I was fine. I had some doctors that said it wasn't so fine," said Correa. "It was shocking to me because since I had this surgery I never missed a game. My ankle's never hurt."
He said it was "very surprising' because he had three physicals in 2022 and and "everything was fine." His agent, Scott Boras, explained further that the Twins felt Correa's functional fitness outweighs the concerns that showed up on MRI scans before his deals with the Giants and Mets fell apart.
"This scenario is about a large separation in the orthopedic community about functional fitness and clinical exam versus looking at an MRI. Surgeons who don't treat athletes but they do a lot of surgery will look at an MRI and say one thing, and the other doctors that treat patients and look at them and they find little credence in the MRIs when they've seen dramatic performance, particularly over an 8-year span and they're going to reward that with functional fitness and say certain athletes have certain pain levels, certain tolerance," said Boras.
"Many orthopedists believe there's almost a Darwinian concept where you actually grow into a formation of your being able to compete and perform," he continued. "It is a dramatic chasm between how some doctors feel and other doctors feel about the longevity of a player's performance."
Correa inked a deal worth $200 million guaranteed over the next six years. The deal could extend to ten years and a total value of $270 million if all goes well after the first six seasons.
Correa played in Minnesota in 2022 before opting out of the final two years of his contract. That led to reported agreements with the Giants (13 years, $350 million) and the Mets (12 years, $315 million) that ultimately fell apart out of concern about Correa's right ankle that was repaired in 2014.
The ankle hasn't caused Correa to miss any time in the big leagues, but there was enough concern about the old injury to make the Mets cut their 12-year guaranteed offer in half, which appears to been the catalyst to re-open the door for the Twins.
"I couldn't get more happy," Correa said. "My family's very happy. [My wife] Daniella is very excited. [My son] Kylo is going to grow up to Minnesota Nice, which I love. Yeah, we're very excited. I get more Juicy Lucy's also."
Related: Twins' potential 2023 lineup with Carlos Correa returning
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.