The Minnesota Twins lost out on Carlos Correa, but the team’s final offer signals that a new era is being ushered.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking the biggest takeaway from the Minnesota Twins losing out on Carlos Correa is that the team failed to sign a big name free agent.
The takeaway is that the notoriously small ball Twins took a big swing on a top free agent, showing a willingness to spend its way into contention that we’ve never seen before.
For Twins fans, that’s almost as good as Correa choosing Minnesota over San Francisco.
The fact that Minnesota was one of the final two teams standing in the Correa sweepstakes is impressive in and of itself. When Minnesota signed Correa to a one-year deal last year, the general assumption was that the team made the deal so it could flip him and cash in on his value at the trade deadline. Fast forward a year and the Twins had one of the final seats at Correa’s free agent table, a legitimate one, and it becomes clear why even missing on signing him is exciting for fans in Minnesota.
San Francisco ended up beating the Twins best offer, handing Correa $350 million and a full no trade clause in exchange for the next 13 years of his career without any opt outs. To their credit, the Twins went down swinging, offering a contract that would have set a franchise record but also sets the stage for a new era in the club.
According to MLB insider Jon Heyman, the Twins final offer to Correa clocked in at $285 million over 10 years, the largest deal Minnesota has ever offered a player. Not even franchise legend, future Hall of Famer, and hometown icon Joe Mauer got an offer like that (his deal was 8 years, $184 million back in 2011).
This is a big deal.
Full disclosure: if you couldn’t tell from the headline I’m a little biased here. It’s hard to emphasize how hopeless being a Twins fans has been over the last decade — really, going al the way back to the 2002 ALCS against the Angels. The Twins have been perpetually interesting, and occasionally very good at baseball, but never good enough to capitalize or do anything with the momentum. Hearts have always been in the right place, but the best results the previous front office formula produced ended with the team politely Abe Simpson’ing in and out of the postseason as nothing more than speed bumps for the Astros or Yankees.
Something needed to change, and against all Minnesota Sports odds it seemingly has.
Yes the Twins ultimately lost out on Correa, but Minnesota demonstrated a brash willingness to spend in ways it never has before. Perhaps, after all these years, this is their blowup, and with names like Dansby Swanson and Carlos Rodon still on the wish list we’re finally witnessing a new era of Twins baseball ushered in.