While official negotiations haven’t taken place in quite some time, sources connecting the Chicago Cubs with Carlos Correa appear to have been way off.
The Cubs had been connected to Correa on a seven-year deal, but that now appears unlikely after the latest update from MLB insider Bob Nightengale.
Nightengale stated that the Cubs’ trade deadline moves make it unlikely for them to sign a player of Correa’s caliber, especially after he hired Scott Boras as his agent. Suddenly, Correa doesn’t have much wiggle room to negotiate, and he’ll seek out the decade-long contract he initially demanded at the beginning of free agency.
Boras clients rarely, if ever, take less than what they deserve.
“If they’re going to do that, they never would have broken up the team in the first place,” Nightengale told David Kaplan on NBC Sports Chicago’s The Rush. “It’d look kind of ridiculous to go after Correa now when you’re letting all the other guys go.”
Cubs: Carlos Correa signing is unlikely
Nightengale cites that fact that the Cubs traded the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel away at the deadline as evidence that they and Correa are headed in opposite directions.
This is all despite previous reports that Correa was open to taking on a rebuild, as long as he had the contract to match. A seven-year offer from the Cubs wasn’t that sort of deal.
“So I think they’ll just keep rebuilding, but I think it will be easier for the Cubs to get some good young players on the cheap [post-lockout] because the market is going to be flooded,” Nightengale continued.
Correa’s potential post-lockout destination is unknown for now, but Nightengale places the Los Angeles Dodgers as the frontrunners at the moment.
“I don’t know where he ends up,” Nightengale said. “I think LA is an x-factor, the Dodgers, because they don’t have [Corey] Seager, but I’m not sure anyone’s going to give them the $340 million he wants.”
Correa could be in for some tough negotiations after the lockout.