What’s Going on With the New York Mets and Carlos Correa?

In all my years as a baseball fan, I've never seen anything quite like the saga of the New York Mets and Carlos Correa's seemingly infinite free agency.

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A week ago, Carlos Correa was set to sign with the San Francisco Giants on a massive 13 year, $350 million deal. And at the last minute, the Giants had second thoughts regarding the star shortstop's medicals.

And almost as soon as his deal with the Giants started to fall apart, Steve Cohen and the free-spending New York Mets emerged from the shadows with a 12 year, $315 million deal for Correa to move off of his natural shortstop position to play third base.

It was seen as a massive win for the Mets. Correa is universally recognized as one of the best shortstops in baseball. So to have him be willing to move to third base with Francisco Lindor at shortstop drew comparisons to the New York Yankees arrangements with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. And as everybody knows, that pair would go on to help lead the Yankees to their 27th World Series in 2009.

However, when Carlos Correa went for his physical with the Mets they too expressed concern about the results regarding his surgically repaired lower left leg, leaving his massive deal up in the air as a big, expensive question mark for a team that's poised to spend about $500 million on its roster for the 2023 season.

For now, the Mets and Correa's agent Scott Boras are still trying to work out a deal, but other teams have reportedly already reached out to Boras in hopes of stealing the player from the Mets just days after they stole him from the Giants.

And another wrench that could get thrown into the works with Correa's deal with the Mets is their current third base situation. Right now, Eduardo Escobar is holding the corner post and he slashed .240/.295/.430 for an OPS of .726, 6% above the league average OPS for 2022.

Certainly not a star player for the Mets, but a solid option as they await the arrival of their number two prospect and number 18 in all of Major League Baseball, Brett Baty. Binghamton Rumble Ponies fans should be very familiar with Baty, given that he was a dominant force for the team through an otherwise rough season before getting moved up to triple-A Syracuse in August and having a brief injury-replacement stint in the big leagues.

With Escobar and Baty in the organization already, Correa becomes more of a luxury for a team that already won 101 games last season. This week will bring more clarity to the situation but for now, Mets fans can rest easy knowing that Steve Cohen is trying his hardest to make the Correa deal work but still has two really good options waiting in the wings should it fall apart.

Regardless of how it works out, Carlos Correa's free agency is one of the strangest and most dramatic that I've seen in my life.