The entire Carlos Correa scenario occurred so quick it virtually felt like a fever dream, additionally as a result of he signed with the New York Mets whereas most of us — particularly on the West Coast — had been asleep. Correa went from signing with the San Francisco Giants, to having his introductory press convention postponed resulting from a reported situation along with his bodily, to a New York Met all throughout the course of the week. Giants’ followers are clearly upset. They thought they had been touchdown their subsequent franchise shortstop who would lock down the 6-spot for greater than a decade. They didn’t. But no one actually is aware of why. Sure, there have been studies that outcomes from Correa’s bodily had one thing to do with it, however these studies haven’t been confirmed. It additionally appears fishy that the Giants would have such a large drawback with Correa’s medical outcomes, however the Mets could be prepared to gobble him up instantly afterward for greater than $300 million.
I spoke with the California Sports Institute’s Chris Munford, a advisor for skilled franchises on issues of energy and conditioning plus efficiency, to know a bit extra about what may’ve occurred. The Giants apparently backed out of the deal resulting from an unexpected drawback with Correa’s medical examinations. However, previous to that situation, San Fran was prepared to provide Correa $350 million over 13 years. The first query I wanted answered was how dangerous Correa’s bodily outcomes needed to have been to ensure that the group to stroll away from a franchise shortstop.
“Based on his injury history, the only thing that would kind of jump out I could imagine would be his lower back issues,” Munford informed Deadspin. “If you look at [Correa’s] other things — broken fingers, even the broken fibula — they’re really not a big deal. In terms of what we know, that lower back would be the only thing where I could imagine there being an issue.” However, Giants’ insider Susan Slusser has come ahead claiming that there was no situation with Correa’s again.
Furthermore, different studies have indicated that though docs cleared Correa of any points. The Giants apparently disagreed with their evaluation although. What may this disagreement have probably been?
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“If that is true that the Giants’ camp came in after the medicals and had an issue with the results, then it’s highly likely that there’s more going on aside from the medical situation,” Munford admitted. He continued, “An executive might look at the deal though and notice that [Correa] has gotten hurt a lot, not severely, but year-in, year-over, he’s gotten hurt. They’re giving him $350 million. My sense is that they were probably looking for some other guarantees to keep their risk low.”
Correa has had a collection of small accidents over the past a number of years. Munford goes on to clarify that there was probably a clause in Correa’s contract that will’ve harm his wage if he didn’t attain sure playtime figures in every season. Given Correa’s historical past, having solely performed greater than 140 video games in a season twice in his profession, it’s probably he and his agent Scott Boras weren’t prepared to conform to these situations. Meanwhile, the Mets probably don’t have any such situations of their contract with Correa.
Even although the Giants might have had an issue with the medical outcomes, “it’s not at all surprising that the Mets don’t,” says Munford. “There’s no standardized test for these things. That doesn’t exist, so if a team really wants someone to pass the physical, they will. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that one team would approve somebody’s medical and another team doesn’t.”
We are nonetheless unaware of what actually pushed the Giants away from Correa or vice versa. The consensus appears to be that it had one thing to do with Correa’s medical historical past. Some studies have indicated that Correa’s damaged fibula from 2014 performed an element, nevertheless it’s secure to say that the Giants — and undoubtedly everybody concerned with Correa — would’ve identified about that harm lengthy earlier than the bodily was ever carried out. Munford has even undergone fibula surgical procedure earlier than. He informed Deadspin that there’s virtually a “zero percent chance [the fibula] is the reason. It doesn’t affect explosiveness or stability at all.” It appears probably that there have been different motives at play, however blaming a medical situation could be a simple out for the Giants to cover behind.
“If you look at the responses to all this from Instagram or Twitter, they’re trashing the executive suite out there in San Francisco for not signing them regardless. Fans are up in arms,” Munford defined. “Public perception is key. If they just turn around and say ‘Yeah, we’re not signing him because we think it’s too much money now,’ they’d really be opening up a bad can of worms. If they say ‘Well, we’re not signing because he gets hurt a lot,’ or ‘There was something wrong with the medical,’ that softens the blow.” Munford desires to make it clear, he’s not claiming that there was one thing else concerned, however fairly that it will make sense if there was. Claiming medical points additionally explains the lack of expertise to turn into public for the reason that Correa dilemma occurred.
“A team has the right to provide whatever they want, and with Collective Bargaining Agreements, the team can only say so much about their physicals. If you say ‘medical,’ you automatically give yourself the shield to not say anything more, because you legally can’t,” says Munford. With so little info identified about this case, the Giants claiming the deal fell by resulting from medical causes might be true, nevertheless it’s maybe simply as probably that they don’t need sure features of the deal changing into public information at this second.
Details are definitely fishy surrounding Correa, and till extra info turns into public, we are able to’t probably know what the Giants’ true intentions had been. That mentioned, the present pool of data isn’t sitting proper with me, and I wouldn’t be shocked if contrasting info turns into public very quickly.