A canceled news conference, late-night negotiations and a hotel room tackle: Inside the stunning events that made Carlos Correa a Met
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Jeff PassanESPN
THE ITINERARY WAS set. On Sunday night, Carlos Correa, his wife, son, parents, siblings and in-laws would descend on San Francisco and check in to their rooms on the 12th floor of the St. Regis hotel. On Monday, Correa would undergo a physical examination by the San Francisco Giants, the final step to make official the $350 million deal they’d agreed to six days earlier. On Tuesday, the entire family would attend Correa’s introductory news conference, followed by a cable-car tour of the city and media blitzkrieg. It was perfect, a three-day introduction for a contract set to last 13 years.
And then it all fell apart.
On Monday night, Correa’s agent, Scott Boras, also posted up on the 12th floor, received a call from Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi expressing trepidation over results from the standard medical analysis of Correa. Their concerns were with Correa’s lower right leg, which had been surgically repaired in 2014 after he broke his fibula on a slide during a minor league game. It was an injury Correa hadn’t thought about in years, and suddenly it was putting in jeopardy the fourth-largest guaranteed contract in North American sports history.
The team asked Boras for more time to consider whether to honor or walk away from the agreement. The Giants postponed Tuesday morning’s news conference, the first sign to the world that something was amiss. Correa sat, waited and tried to stay calm, even as his family struggled to.
Finally, about 1 p.m. PT, the parties reengaged on the phone. Boras asked team officials whether they intended to proceed with the 13-year contract. The Giants said they did not — at least not at its current length and value. Perhaps they could work out a new deal.
What came next staggered the sports world and set off a chain of events certain to reverberate through the game for years to come. The story of how Correa lost his megadeal with the Giants and about 10 hours later agreed to another with the New York Mets was pieced together by ESPN through interviews with people involved in the negotiations as well as those with knowledge of the situation.
It is a tale of how a team eager to sign a star this winter wound up empty-handed and another replete with big names wound up with one more. It is a case study of how a team like the Giants, whose meticulousness defines their roster-building, contrasts with the Mets, whose owner is remaking the sport in real time with truckfuls of cash. And it is a peek inside a hotel room in San Francisco, where excitement devolved into devastation before culminating in joy.
WASHINGTON — Brayden Schenn played his 1,000th regular-season NHL game when he and the St. Louis Blues beat the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Thursday night.
Older brother Luke played his 1,000th game Oct. 17 with the Nashville Predators. The Schenns are the eighth set of brothers to each reach that milestone and the first to do so in the same season.
“I’ve always said you don’t get there without the help of tons of people,” Brayden said after his team’s morning skate. “Family being one and coaches and players and teammates and people in the organization. Obviously, you have to embrace the day-to-day grind of the ups and downs and just how hard this league is, but, yeah, pretty special that we have best buddies that push each other every day and get to do it in the same year.”
Blues players celebrated the occasion with Schenn shirts and hats with the captain’s No. 10 on them. Father Jeff gave a pregame speech in the locker room after coach Jim Montgomery said, “Schenner and his bro both getting 1,000 games in the same season is a tribute to the great family raised by Jeff and his wife.”
Jeff Schenn said Brayden was his favorite player on the Blues and tied for his favorite overall, of course, with Luke.
“Honored and privileged and very proud to be part of the big day and the big journey that goes along with it,” their dad said. “You see the hard work and the dedication and the bumps and the bruises and everything you guys put into it. … Just so excited and happy to be here and awful proud of him.”
Montgomery said after the win that Jeff Schenn looked very comfortable speaking in front of the group.
“Jeff and his wife, Brayden’s parents, they raised four great kids and two have played 1,000 games in the NHL,” Montgomery said. “His message was well-received, and you could tell by our start that we wanted to play for our captain.”
Dylan Holloway, who scored twice, said because it was Schenn’s 1,000th game, the Blues “wanted this one bad.”
The Capitals acknowledged the milestone with a message on arena videoboards and an announcement during the first period.
Brayden getting to 1,000 comes amid talk ahead of the March 7 trade deadline that teams are interested in acquiring both of them in separate moves. The Blues are on the fringe of the playoff race in the Western Conference, while the Predators are far out of contention.
“The times I’ve gotten traded, I didn’t expect to get traded, so you really never know,” Brayden said, adding he has loved his time with St. Louis. “It’s a business and that just comes with the flows of kind of where we’re positioned, five points out of the playoffs. But it’s the trade deadline, so some people make rumors. … You just take it a day at a time and just focus on your game and play.”
Brayden, 33, has three years left on his contract at an annual salary cap hit of $6.5 million. Luke, 35, has one more season left after this one at $2.75 million.
The Schenn brothers have played together in the NHL before, spending 3½ seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2013 to 2015. Brayden won the Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2019, then Luke back to back with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and 2021.
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