I totally, completely agree with this post, Mark.
It was about the money in regards to the annual sum paid. Carlos’s ego wanted, needed, something he could brag about. The $35.1MM as the highest annual paid to an infielder, for whatever reason, at this point in time that sum was the most significant thing along with being able to opt out next year. And barring injury, he will exercise his option next year.
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I do not hate him. He is dead to me. Here is the fact I know: he signed with the Twins for three years with TWO opt-out years. Read Mark’s post. That is what Mr. Correa-Boras did.
Don’t forget they extended Bregman and Altuve. If it was going to take something massive to lure Correa back I don’t blame them at all. His track record is too spotty.
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The opt out. While I’d rather him not have it, I’d also rather have Correa for 1 year as opposed to 0. If he opts out the Astros have an entire year to work on a replacement and Pena has another year to develop. The Astros are a worse team now and a lot less likely to make the WS.
If this was on.y about the opt out, that’s a really bad business decision.
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It was about making plans with guys you can count on to be here.
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Correa’s deal with the Twins contains opt outs after both year one and year two. Unless he gets hurt or sucks, he’s going right back into free agency next year to try and get the 10 year, 300 million deal he wanted in the first place. Also, the opt outs were the sticking point.
https://twitter.com/benondatop/status/1505078069207441408?s=21
Also, I don’t hate Jim Crane. He’s a great owner and wants to win. Of course, I’m not happy that the Astros just lost another elite player. It lowers their ceiling as a team at this moment.
However, I do stand by what I said about if Crane is unwilling to offer anyone a deal longer than six years in length, he should have prioritized bringing Springer back before last season and let Correa walk. He knew what Correa was looking for the entire time and it didn’t align with his philosophy concerning long-term contracts.
If that’s the case then signing Randy Johnson was a terrible idea and cost us prospects.
I’m not forgetting that. They got both of them extended to six year deals before they could hit free agency in Altuve’s case, and in Bregman’s case, bought out his arbitration years. Hopefully, they extend Alvarez and Tucker before they hit free agency.
While I would prefer Correa still be an Astro, my far bigger frustration is that both Springer and Correa left. I knew that there was no way they could pay both of them, but bringing one back was a must.
Make no mistake, I know the Astros are going to be good, and Jim Crane is a great owner that wants to win. I just don’t see an alternative in free agency or via trade that makes the Astros as good for 2022 as they would have been with Correa.
It’s not like they haven’t won a lot of games without Correa.
It’s also possible that the Astros are leery of Correa’s back issues. Who knows? Doesn’t really matter now. Time to figure out what’s next.
They did not “sign Randy Johnson.”
NO! It was not a must.
They offered him a 5 year deal already, this was a 3 year deal.
This would assume that Correa and Boras were willing to show their hand to generate that equal offer from the Astros. I have never seen any indication from either of them that that’s how they would operate. And, doing so would diminish the market for Correa next year as teams understood that any offer they made had the opportunity to be revealed and countered.
Say whatever you want about how this all fell apart in the end, but Correa gave the Astros and Crane numerous chances to negotiate and get this done. They had chances in Spring Training before last season, before the lockout and after the lockout to find common ground and couldn’t.
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I am not so sure. If you look back at the last 25 years, the Astros have been one of the most successful baseball franchises in the entire league. I tend to appreciate that Crane adopted that fiscal and player management style from the previous front offices. While it may occasionally sting, the teams that tender long contracts typically end up regretting it. I am happy for the Astros to not flip to that model.
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It’s 3 years on paper only. In practice it’s 3 1 year deals with Correa having all the power
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A million times this.
Frankly, if Correa wanted a one year deal, cool.
But a 3 year deal with a yearly opt out is absolutely fucking bullshit for a guy you’re paying that much for, and gives him 100 percent of the negotiating power going forward.
I for one am glad they didn’t offer this/Correa didn’t take it if Crane did.
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Yeah, after hearing it’s really just one-year contracts, fuck all this. Let Carlos and Daniella go be Minneapolis ambassadors for a few months; they’ll be gone before they have to learn ice-fishing next winter anyway.
Seriously, isn’t this really like a 9-month contract?
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