The Minnesota Twins officially announced their new six-year pact with star infielder Carlos Correa on Wednesday. They then re-introduced Correa to their media and fan base with a press conference. Predictably, given how previous deals with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets collapsed over concerns about his right ankle, Correa and agent Scott Boras spent much of their press conference addressing his physical wellbeing.
"I had a lot of doctors tell me I was fine," Correa said while divulging that he underwent three physicals last year without any issue. "I had some doctors that said it wasn't so fine. It was shocking to me because since I had this surgery, I've never missed a game. I never got treatment on my ankle. My ankle has never hurt."
Correa, for those unaware, had a plate installed in his lower right leg after suffering a significant injury as a prospect in the Houston Astros system. He has not missed time because of his leg since, but it's believed that the plate made it more difficult for his contract to be insured, raising his risk profile in a manner that the Giants and Mets may not have felt comfortable about on a substantially longer and more expensive deal.
Correa and Boras stressed that doctors had varying opinions on his ankle.
"This scenario is about a large separation in the orthopedic community about functional fitness and physical exam versus looking at an MRI," Boras said. "Surgeons who don't treat athletes but they do a lot of surgery will look at an MRI and say one thing, and the other doctors who treat patients and look at them, they find little credence in the MRIs when they've seen dramatic performance, particularly over an eight-year span."
Of course, it's anyone's guess as to how Correa is impacted (if at all) by the ankle moving forward. His contract with the Twins includes four option years, meaning the deal could stretch a decade should all go well. While he acknowledged that the offseason was hectic in some respects, he said that he tried to remain focused on what he could control rather than what he couldn't.
"It was definitely an emotional roller coaster," Correa said of his offseason. "I focus on the things that I can control. Some of these things, I have no control over them, so I was not stressing over it too much just for the simple fact I could not control their decisions and what some of the doctors said. What I can control is preparing my body every single day to compete every single day, show up every single day to help my team win. Those are the things I can control, and I stress about that."
Correa, 28, is a two-time All-Star who has batted .279/.357/.479 (129 OPS+) for his career. He accumulated 5.4 Wins Above Replacement as a member of the Twins last season, according to Baseball Reference.
