Carlos Correa spurns Giants for Mets! What happened, what it means for both teams and what’s next
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Jeff PassanESPN
In a stunning turn of events, free agent Carlos Correa is headed to the New York Mets — and not the San Francisco Giants.
The 28-year-old shortstop agreed to terms on a 12-year, $315 million deal with New York — a week after coming to terms with the Giants on a historic 13-year, $350 million contract.
How did this extraordinary change of course take place? What went wrong between the Correa and the Giants? And has anything like this ever happened in MLB free agency? Here’s everything you need to know about the shocking switch and what this means for Correa, the Mets, the Giants and beyond.
Wait … what happened?!
The Giants’ contract with the star shortstop fell apart after the team expressed concerns during the physical examination, prompting Correa to reopen his free agency and sign in the middle of the night with the Mets.
Before Correa agreed to terms with the Giants, the Mets had made an 11th-hour run at signing him. The deal did not come to fruition then. A week later, the most astonishing move of the offseason is one passed physical from becoming a reality (a caveat with particular import to this contract).
It’s a staggering outcome that continues to reshape the baseball landscape this offseason — and would make the Mets the most expensive team in North American sports history.
Didn’t the Mets already spend a whole bunch of money this offseason? And don’t they already have a shortstop?!
Sure do. Last year, Mets owner Steve Cohen signed Francisco Lindor to a 10-year, $341 million deal after trading for the star shortstop in 2020. Correa is expected to move to third base in New York to play alongside his friend and Team Puerto Rico teammate Lindor.
And speaking of Steve Cohen … when Cohen bought the Mets in November 2020, there was a belief around baseball that he could upend the system with his wealth. But this exceeds the expectations of even the most hopeful Mets fan. If Correa’s deal is completed, the team’s estimated payroll will be around $384 million. Based on that number, the Mets would owe an additional $111 million in luxury tax payments. Their total payroll, as of now, is expected to be just shy of $500 million. In baseball history, no team has come within $150 million of that number.
Just this offseason, the Mets are adding Correa to a list of signings that includes starters Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga and Jose Quintana along with the re-signings of outfielder Brandon Nimmo and relievers Edwin Diaz and Adam Ottavino. Add in catcher Omar Narvaez and reliever David Robertson, and the Mets’ total outlay this winter is $806.1 million.
Correa had “agreed to terms” with the Giants. What does that phrase actually mean in free agency?
When a player and team agree to terms, they strike a deal on contract details: years, dollars, performance bonuses, opt-outs, no-trade clauses and other financial levers. A team sends a term sheet to a player, and the player signs it. But that agreed-upon contract is not official until a player passes a medical examination, which includes an MRI, blood work and other general health tests. While it’s rare, teams do occasionally flag a player’s medicals, which allows for two outcomes: a renegotiation of the deal or it being scrapped altogether. Here, the latter occurred.
Were other teams still allowed to talk with Correa? When could the Mets have started renegotiating?
This is something of a gray area. Technically, when the physical process starts, the deal is out of a player’s hands. Two scenarios can squelch it: the team failing the player on the physical, or Major League Baseball declining to approve the contract. Players and agents do not continue talking with other teams, post-agreement, because they don’t want to suggest the deal is in jeopardy, lest it be pulled off the table, and the agent does not want to earn a reputation as someone who renounces agreements for no good reason. Would that run afoul of the rules, though? That’s unclear; no player is known to have tried.
What’s obvious is that the Giants’ concerns were serious enough that Correa and his agent, Scott Boras, worried the deal with San Francisco was in peril, and the negotiations with the Mets resumed Tuesday and accelerated rapidly.
Do we know what the Giants saw in Correa’s physical? And should the Mets be concerned?
The specific nature of the Giants’ concerns with Correa is unclear. But with a deal as long and lucrative as the one to which he had agreed, any team approaches a physical with greater rigor.
As for the Mets: Every team has different thresholds for giving a thumbs-up on players’ medicals. But, after the events of the past 24 hours, it’s extremely unlikely that Correa would come to terms with the Mets without the team indicating that it expected to pass him and make the deal official.
Has anything like this ever happened in MLB before?
Nothing of this magnitude, no.
Differences of opinions on medical information aren’t infrequent, but they tend to be more with draft-eligible players. Perhaps the most famous is right-hander Kumar Rocker, who went to the Mets with the 10th pick of the 2021 draft. They had agreed on a $6 million deal before the draft, but the Mets did not offer him a contract. Rocker was taken third overall by the Texas Rangers in the 2022 draft and signed for $5.2 million.
The closest analog to Correa in the last decade is Grant Balfour, the veteran reliever who agreed to a two-year, $15 million deal with Baltimore in 2013. The Orioles — who were widely seen throughout the industry as having the most difficult-to-pass medical process — failed Balfour. He eventually signed with Tampa Bay for two years and $12 million.
What can the Giants do from here?
Unfortunately for them, there’s not much left to do. They went hard after Aaron Judge, only to see him re-sign with the New York Yankees. They then poached the best player left in free agency, Correa — only for this to happen.
The best free agent still available is 32-year-old right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, but the Giants already have seven starting pitchers. The best position player left is outfielder Michael Conforto, who didn’t play last season with a shoulder injury.
The real answer: Even after signing outfielders Mitch Haniger and Joc Pederson as well as starters Ross Stripling and Sean Manaea, this is likely to end up a lost offseason for the Giants, who went into the winter hoping to land a franchise player and will likely exit it empty-handed.
Former LSU wide receiver Kyren Lacy, accused of causing a crash that killed a 78-year-old man on Dec. 17 and then fleeing the scene without rendering aid or calling authorities, turned himself in to authorities Sunday night, was jailed and then released on $151,000 bail, according to police records.
Lafourche (Louisiana) Parish Sheriff’s Office records indicate that Lacy was charged with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run with death and reckless operation of a vehicle.
A warrant had been issued for Lacy’s arrest, and police on Friday said they had been in contact with Lacy and his attorney to turn himself in.
According to a news release from Louisiana State Police on Friday, Lacy was allegedly driving a 2023 Dodge Charger on Louisiana Highway 20 and “recklessly passed multiple vehicles at a high rate of speed by crossing the centerline and entering the northbound lane while in a designated no-passing zone.”
“As Lacy was illegally passing the other vehicles, the driver of a northbound pickup truck abruptly braked and swerved to the right to avoid a head-on collision with the approaching Dodge,” a Louisiana State Police news release said.
“Traveling behind the pickup was a 2017 Kia Cadenza whose driver swerved left to avoid the oncoming Dodge Charger. As the Kia Cadenza took evasive action to avoid impact with the Dodge, it crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a southbound 2017 Kia Sorento.”
Police alleged that Lacy, 24, drove around the crash scene and fled “without stopping to render aid, call emergency services, or report his involvement in the crash.”
Herman Hall, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, who was a passenger in the Kia Sorento, later died from injuries suffered in the crash, according to state police. Hall was 78.
The drivers of the Cadenza and Sorento also sustained moderate injuries, according to police.
Lacy’s agent, Rocky Arceneaux, said in a statement that his client is “fully cooperating with the authorities.”
Lacy played two seasons at Louisiana before transferring to LSU in 2022. This past season, he had 58 catches for 866 yards with nine touchdowns and declared for the NFL draft on Dec. 19, two days after the crash.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.
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Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — As the confetti fell around him, Jack Sawyer raised his arms, lifted his head and closed his eyes. As a boy growing up in a Columbus suburb playing catch with his dad in the backyard wearing a scarlet and gray jersey, Sawyer had often dreamed that one day he might become an Ohio State hero with an iconic moment that would go down in Buckeyes history.
On Friday night, playing against Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, that moment finally happened.
On fourth-and-goal with just over two minutes remaining, Texas needed one play to tie the score and potentially force overtime. Instead, Sawyer ended the Longhorns’ season and catapulted the Buckeyes to the CFP National Championship game, where they will face Notre Dame.
Sawyer screamed past right tackle Cameron Williams and sailed toward Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, his freshman-year roommate at Ohio State. As he crashed into Ewers’ back, the ball popped loose. Off one bounce, Sawyer scooped it up and raced 83 yards for a touchdown that won’t be forgotten in Columbus.
“I almost blacked out when I saw nothing but green grass ahead of me,” he said.
With that play, the Buckeyes defeated Texas 28-14. And Sawyer cemented an Ohio State legacy.
“To make a play like that in that moment. … You want to leave a legacy behind? You become a legend. He just became a legend at Ohio State,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day told ESPN on the field after the game.
The longing for just that moment is why Sawyer put off the NFL to come back for his senior season. After three losses to Michigan with no Big Ten championships or national titles, Sawyer and several other Ohio State seniors who could have been Day 1 or 2 NFL draft picks opted to return for “one last ride,” as he put it.
Their disappointing 2023 season ended with a deflating loss to Missouri in the same Cotton Bowl stadium. Sawyer said he just couldn’t stomach ending his Ohio State career that way.
“I wanted to go to the NFL and chase my dream more than the next guy,” Sawyer told ESPN over the summer. “But I haven’t won a championship. And you walk around the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center] and all you see is championships and championship posters and banners. Having not helped our team win any of those, it’s something that wears on me and it’s something that motivates me every day.”
Sawyer nearly had that moment six weeks ago. Yet, in a turn, what followed was a career low point for him and the Buckeyes.
He intercepted Michigan quarterback Davis Warren at the goal line midway through the fourth quarter. But with the score tied, the Buckeyes couldn’t capitalize on the turnover. On their ensuing possession, the Wolverines nailed a game-winning field goal for a stunning 13-10 victory, handing the Buckeyes — and Sawyer — their fourth straight loss in the series.
As Michigan’s players planted their flag at midfield of The Horseshoe, Sawyer charged in along with his teammates and ripped it away, leading to a melee that lasted five minutes and was finally broken up by police with pepper spray.
But with the expanded 12-team playoff, Ohio State’s seniors got one final chance to end their careers with hardware. With his scoop-and-score, Sawyer brought the Buckeyes within a game of winning their first national championship since 2014.
“The resiliency of this team from a month ago has been incredible,” said Sawyer, who became the first FBS player in a decade to produce multiple pass breakups and a sack in three straight games, according to ESPN Research, all coming during Ohio State’s playoff run. “We sat up here last year with a sore taste in our mouth and heard a lot of things. We come back and heard the same things a month ago. But we kept swinging.”
The underdog Longhorns kept swinging too.
After the Buckeyes took a 21-14 lead, Ewers led Texas all the way to the Ohio State 1-yard line. But on second-and-goal, safety Lathan Ransom dropped Texas running back Quintrevion Wisner for a 7-yard loss on a risky sweep.
“We had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It’s one of those plays if you block it all right, you get in the end zone — and we didn’t.”
After an incompletion, Texas faced fourth-and-goal from the 8. Ewers, who began his career at Ohio State before transferring to Texas after one season, said he thought he had time to get off the pass. But his onetime roommate got to him before he could.
“Obviously, it’s not like I tried to give him the game,” Ewers said. “He is a great player, great individual, great person. … It sucks, but Jack’s a good player and he made a great play.”
Sawyer’s fumble recovery was the longest in CFP and Cotton Bowl history. As Ohio State quarterback Will Howard took a knee, Day jumped into Sawyer’s arms.
“I don’t know if there’s a guy … who loves being a Buckeye more,” Day said. “This is somebody … who has always wanted to be a Buckeye, who has always wanted for a moment like this. So to see him get the moment that he had today — I mean, he’s become like family to me.”
Day and Sawyer both cautioned that their last ride together isn’t over quite yet. They have one game left and a national title still to win. But they also both acknowledged the magnitude of the moment. And Sawyer’s looming place in Ohio State history.
“I love Columbus, I love the state of Ohio, I love Ohio State football,” Sawyer said. “And I’m so fortunate to be playing in the national championship my last year here.”
ESPN’s Dave Wilson contributed to this report.
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