MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins came quickly out of the gate after the lockout this spring by making three bold trades and becoming the surprise landing spot for star shortstop Carlos Correa.
Their momentum lasted deep into the summer, with 108 of the 182 days in the regular season spent in first place. After their tumble down the stretch pushed them out of contention in the AL Central and stuck them with a 78-84 record, a mere five-game improvement from 2021, the Twins trudge toward winter facing one of the same big questions as last year.
Should they go shopping for Correa?
“When I go to the mall and I go to the Dior store, when I want something, I get it. I ask how much it costs, and I buy it. If you really want something, you just go get it,” Correa said last week. "I’m the product here. If they want my product, they’ve just got to come get it.”
Correa, whose $35.1 million salary this season was the third-highest in baseball for a position player, has an opt-out clause that can make him a free agent — again.
Speaking to reporters after the Twins finished their schedule in Chicago on Wednesday, the 28-year-old two-time All-Star strongly hinted he would exercise his option and test the market — again.
“The decision, it’s very simple. I’m going to have some conversations with the front office here and see where their headspace is at and where they are,” Correa said. "I talked about marriage in terms of building a long-term relationship and then we go from there, but we all know — you know — the game enough to know what my decision is going to be like.”
Despite the fact that the Twins finished 14 games out of first place after being tied at the top with eventual winner Cleveland as late as Sept. 4, Correa raved from start to finish this season about the organization, the ballpark and the community.
That doesn't mean Correa and his agent, Scott Boras, will cut the Twins a discount.
“He’s in a unique situation. We knew that when we signed that contract and we’ll have to see how this plays out, but we certainly have an interest in seeing him as a Twin in 2023 and beyond,” club president and chief executive officer Dave St. Peter said. “I can assure you that.”
Correa was everything the Twins were counting on at the plate, in the field and in the clubhouse. The problem is they had so many other players unavailable or underperforming that his impact on winning was ultimately muted. Luis Arraez's batting title was one of the few other positives.
“We got ourselves to a good spot going into September,” manager Rocco Baldelli said, "and then a lot of things went the wrong way.”
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