Mets interested in physical Carlos Correa: Sources

It’s materialism. one more time.

The New York Mets, like the San Francisco Giants earlier in the week, have raised concerns about Carlos Correa’s surgically repaired lower right leg, which could jeopardize their 12-year, $315 million deal with the star shortstop, according to people briefed. on command. They were not authorized to speak publicly.

The parties could agree to a restructured contract if the Mets continue to have reservations about the long-term stability of the Corea leg. It may be difficult for the Mets to back out of the agreement completely after its owner, Steve Cohen, spoke out about the deal. It could also be difficult for Correa to re-enter the free agent market and secure a similar contract after two clubs identified the same issue in the physicals they carried out for him.

The new developments are the latest twist in an epic that shocked the baseball world when Correa and agent Scott Boras on Wednesday switched from their original 13-year, $350 million agreement with the Giants to a separate deal with the Mets.

Cohen confirmed his apparent reversal to the New York Post, saying, “We needed something else, and this is it.” Major League Baseball cautions teams not to comment publicly on pending agreements, a former executive said, noting that such statements could persuade an arbitrator to side with a player in his complaint.

If the Mets remain uncomfortable with Correa’s long-term prospects, one way to change the agreement would be to insert language that said parts of the deal would not be guaranteed if Correa wasted a set amount of time with a specific leg problem. However, Porras may resist any attempt to change the deal.

Boras said Correa, who has played in 148 games and 136 starts in the past two seasons, had his physique with the Mets on Thursday. Teams generally make formal agreements the day after a player’s medical exams unless an issue arises. The Giants were set to follow through on that plan precisely earlier in the week.

San Francisco concluded its agreement with Korea on December 13. Correa had his physical on Monday, and the Giants scheduled a pre-season press conference for Tuesday. However, the team postponed the press conference that morning and later confirmed “there was a difference of opinion about the results of Carlos’ physical examination”.

Correa, 28, is requiring arthroscopic surgery to repair a fractured right fibula and minor ligament damage after he hit a triple-RBI and hooked spike on the bag in June 2014, when he was 19 and still in the minor leagues with the Astros. At the time, Corea’s fracture was closer to the ankle than to his knee, said Jeff Lono, general manager of the Astros.

In eight major league seasons, Correa never went on the injured list with a right leg problem. He pointed to the hardware in his leg after a game on September 20 in which he appeared to be injured after a hard slide, but lost no time after that.

“It hit my plate,” Correa told reporters. “I had surgery and it hit. Just kind of numb. Shaking. So I’d wait for it to subside. It was a little scary, but when I moved I knew it was a good thing.”

The twins cleared Correa for a three-year, $105.3 million free agent contract last March, and later made him a 10-year, $285 million offer after he pulled out of the deal early in the season. If he had accepted Correa, the sources said, the team would have applied more scrutiny to their body than they did initially due to the long-term nature of the deal.

Boras sought to re-engage the Twins after the Giants refused to complete their deal with Korea. But unlike the Mets, who raised $27 million from their first discussion with Correa, the Twins weren’t ready to move on from their initial offer. Major league sources said the Twins also would not have given the conversation without investigating potential physical problems Corea is causing with the Giants.

Boras said Wednesday that the Giants advised him they wanted to talk to other doctors before pursuing Correa’s treatment, but he wasn’t willing to wait.

Go deeper

Scott Boras: “There is no current issue” with Carlos Correa’s health as the Mets are exercising physically

I said, ‘Look, I’ve given you a reasonable amount of time. We need to get on with this. Give me a time frame. “If you don’t want to implement, I need to talk to other teams,” Porras said.

“You’re talking about a player who played eight seasons in the league. There are things in his medical history that happened decades ago. Those are all speculative dynamics.

“Every team has the right to follow things up and evaluate things. The main thing is that we gave them (the giants) the medical reports at that time. They still want to sign the player and negotiate with the player.”

The team’s medical personnel sometimes give different interpretations of a player’s medical records, just as a doctor giving a second opinion on a patient can disagree with a first. The Mets live up to Corea’s second opinion. They seem to confirm the first.

(Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)