Carlos Correa’s free agency roller coaster is likely the most chaotic one that MLB fans can think of in recent memory, and at the center of it was his physical.
The shortstop initially reached a 13-year, $350 million agreement with San Francisco; however, the club had “concerns” with his physical. In an interview with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Correa revealed that the Giants’ conversations about his ankle with him were centered around the future, specifically “that in the future it might not hold up. Which I couldn’t understand.”
Correa went on to add, “I never missed a game because of my ankle. You look at my complete medical record in the big leagues, there is zero treatment on my ankle. And it has never hurt. I couldn’t understand how they were predicting the future, saying 8-10 years down the line something might happen to it.”
The shortstop, then, agreed to a 12-year, $315 million deal with the Mets, but the same scenario happened again. However, Correa revealed a new detail that may raise some eyebrows: New York used the same ankle specialist as San Francisco who did not pass him.
“He had already given an opinion to another team about my ankle. He was not going to change that. He was going to stand by what he was saying, of course, because that is what he believed,” Correa said to Rosenthal. “We did have other ankle specialists look at it and say it was going to be fine, orthopedists who know me, even the one who did the surgery on me. They were looking at the functionality of the ankle, the way the ankle has been the past eight years.”
The injury occurred when Correa was 19 and an Astros prospect, back in 2014. He had a fractured right fibula and minor ligament damage, which he got surgery on in June of that year.
The shortstop has found a home as he agreed to return to the Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal. During Wednesday’s press conference, Correa said he had three physicals in 2022, all of which he passed. Not to mention last season he hit .291/.366/.467 alongside 22 homers and 64 RBIs in 136 games.
