Carlos Correa agrees to sign with the Mets, source confirms

In a late-night move that stunned baseball, Mets owner Steve Cohen demonstrated the true power of his multi-billion dollar fortune – agreeing to a deal with Carlos Correa just hours after the star infielder was set to be introduced as the newest member of the San Francisco Giants, a source confirmed.

Correa's introductory news conference Tuesday was canceled after the Giants grew concerned with the results of the 28-year-old’s physical, according to The Associated Press. The nature of the issue remains unclear. After the Giants deal fell through, Cohen, who’s in Hawaii, moved quickly by contacting agent Scott Boras and signing Correa to a reported $315 million, 12-year contract, pending a pivotal medical evaluation.

Cohen currently does not appear overly concerned with the Giants’ findings, and Boras told the New York Post that the medical evaluation came down to a “difference of opinion.” The Post first reported the signing in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with Cohen on record corroborating the deal. It also reported the medical issue was unrelated to the back problems that plagued Correa in 2019.

“While we are prohibited from disclosing confidential medical information, as Scott Boras stated publicly, there was a difference of opinion over the results of Carlos’ physical examination,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said in a statement. “We wish Carlos the best.”

The Mets originally vied for Correa’s services before the Giants signed him to that now-defunct 13-year, $350 million contract on Dec. 13. The two-time All Star and 2015 rookie of the year has said he prefers to stay at shortstop, but his longtime friendship with Francisco Lindor means he’s willing to make the move to third base, a position currently occupied by Eduardo Escobar.

The move, once official, will provide a sought-after bat in a Mets lineup that often lacked pop, if not necessarily talent. Correa compiled a slash line of .291/.366/.467 last year with 22 home runs and 62 RBIs, and was worth 4.4 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs. His 140 wRC+ (adjusted runs created) was third among qualifying shortstops. Correa also was fifth in MVP voting in 2021 and is a proven postseason performer - 18 homers and 59 RBIs in 79 games, along with a World Series title with the Astros in 2017.

There is a caveat, though, especially in light of the Giants rescinding his contract: He can be susceptible to injury. Correa played just 75 games in 2019 after hurting his back and has only once played more than 150 games in a season.

Correa’s hefty contract is another indication of how Cohen has reworked the baseball landscape in the early months of this blockbuster offseason. The hedge fund manager, who bought out the Wilpons before the 2021 season, has committed $806.1 million to free-agent contracts in the last few months – well over $200 million more than the Yankees, who are second this offseason. The Mets' opening day payroll is now projected to be $388 million for luxury tax purposes, per FanGraph’s RosterResource, by far the highest in baseball. Add the competitive balance tax, and the total financial commitment likely exceeds half a billion dollars.

In fact, by continuing to add on, Cohen is resolutely flying in the face of the so-called “Steve Cohen Tax,” which was instituted during the last collective bargaining agreement in an effort to, at least in part, curtail the spending of an owner worth about $17.8 billion, according to Forbes. The result is that around $114 million of the Mets' eventual payroll is set to be luxury tax alone. That makes the Mets' tax bill higher than 10 other teams' current projected 2023 payrolls, per FanGraphs, and because of the CBA, half of that tax money will be redistributed to cheaper franchises.

That's not to say other teams don't have money to spend. Billionaire owners are the rule rather than the exception in baseball, but Cohen is its freest spender, and the reasons for that are layered. Mainly, as the richest owner by far, he's got more to work with. But the Mets are an investment, and a good investment should bring in dividends. He's made no secret about wanting to win a championship, and soon, and there's also a desire to undo the damage wrought by the leaner Wilpon era.

This is also part of a plan to make the Mets more sustainable in the future. Their farm system, which was gutted by trades in earlier years, was ranked No. 20 by MLB prior to 2022, but improved to 14th by August (something further underlined by how reticent the Mets were to part with prospects during the 2022 trade deadline). Then there's the human aspect. For many in a downtrodden fanbase, Cohen has emerged as a sort of beloved benefactor, a dynamic only amplified by the owner's interactions with fans on social media.

So far, that's translated to an unprecedented offseason. The Mets’ major moves have included signing Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, David Robertson and Omar Narvaez as well as re-signing Brandon Nimmo and Edwin Diaz. Tuesday, hours after a news conference announcing Verlander, they re-signed reliever Adam Ottavino. Excesses in their lineup indicate they're not done. James McCann and Escobar are trade possibilities, and there’s a chance they might look to strengthen some other areas, even as the holes in this team are getting harder to see.

“We’re going to be opportunistic and open minded to adding where we can on the pitching side and we’ll see what the end of this week brings,” GM Billy Eppler said hours before a source confirmed the Ottavino signing (and hours, too, before the Correa blockbuster - though, by reported accounts, that was all Cohen's doing). “You don’t have travel plans do you? Might need to be scrapped. There are some other things that we kind of have talked about a little bit. We’re not in a position to talk about anything official, but we’ll see. We’ll continue to be opportunistic.”

Given what Cohen was able to do in the sliver of time Correa was almost a San Francisco Giant, and then not, there’s no doubt about that.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.