In what will go down as one of the most shocking developments we’ve seen in baseball in quite some time, the New York Mets are reportedly signing Carlos Correa to a 12-year, $315 million contract. The deal is pending a physical. He will play third base for the Mets. The New York Post was the first to report the news, which broke in the middle of the night.
Here’s what happened. The San Francisco Giants were scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday to presumably introduce Correa. The deal was never made official and the presser was postponed just hours before the scheduled start time. The Associated Press reported that Correa’s physical was flagged by the Giants due to a medical concern.
Hours before the Giants reached an initial agreement with Correa, rumors swirled of the Mets’ interest in Correa. Late Wednesday night, Mets owner Steve Cohen picked up where he left off and negotiated a deal with Correa’s agent Scott Boras from Hawaii.
If the deal gets finalized, the Mets starting lineup is going to be an absolute juggernaut:
Per FanGraphs Roster Resource, the Mets payroll sits at around $388 million. Luxury tax penalties will take the Mets total spending for 2023 to just under a half billion dollars. They’ve added Justin Verlander, Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, David Robertson, Omar Narvaez, Brooks Raley and re-signed Edwin Diaz, Brandon Nimmo and Adam Ottavino.
With the signing, the Mets will head into the season as the clear favorites to win the NL East.
The Phillies’ first series with the Mets is May 30- June 1. The two teams play seven games against each other during the final week of the season.