Giants fail to sign top free agent Giants signed
It's certainly a novel way to lose, I'll give them that
Until the reports came in that the Giants signed Carlos Correa, I did not believe that they would sign Carlos Correa. It seemed so unlike them, so contrary to everything we’ve seen from them over the last decade. The Giants went out and paid $350 million for one of the best players in baseball? The San Francisco Giants? Well, all right! This is gonna be fun!
I regret to inform you that we are no longer having fun.
The Giants burned down their franchise on Tuesday, and didn’t even get an insurance payout for their trouble. They reneged on their deal with Correa, didn’t negotiate with Scott Boras for the rest of the day, and then watched as he found his client a new deal with the Mets that night. Fans were in the dark, but so were reporters, players, and even some minority owners. Nobody communicated with anyone. According to Boras, nobody communicated with him either. Nobody except Steve Cohen.
The issue, apparently, was Correa’s medical reports, with Andrew Baggarly specifically pointing to Correa’s broken fibula when he was with High-A Lancaster in 2014. The Giants saw something they didn’t like and requested more time to evaluate. After a few hours of that, Boras started reaching out to other teams, first contacting the Twins, who stuck with their 10 year, $285 million offer, and then texting Mets owner Steve Cohen in Hawaii, and coming to a deal with him relatively quickly.
It’s possible that the Giants are right about the medicals, by the way. I don’t want to make it seem like there’s absolutely no way something in there was concerning. But the Twins, for whom Correa played last year, certainly know his medical history pretty well and they don’t have any concerns. From all accounts, the Mets are going to go through with the deal, so they must feel all right about Correa’s medicals too. So even if there’s a real issue that stopped the deal with the Giants, well, their doctors are outvoted at least 2-1.
But it doesn’t seem like that’s it, does it? Did the Giants really scuttle the biggest contract they’ve ever given out over an 8-year-old injury that’s never cropped back up since? Does that pass the smell test?
No, it doesn’t seem like it, does it? It seems like someone in the ownership group got extremely cold feet and found a pretext to nix the deal. It seems like a very rich guy looked at $350 million and said, “That’s a lot of money and I would like to pay less money.”
Good news: he got his wish!!!!
It’s hard to think of a way this could have gone worse for the Giants. They alienated fans, who were excited about Correa and are now pissed at the organization. They alienated other potential free agents, who have to look at the Giants and see a joke of an organization that isn’t serious about improving, and will waste their time. They alienated other players throughout the league, who lost a whole lot of respect for them, like former Giants Kevin Gausman:
They alienated their own players, like Brandon Crawford, who has not been happy with the lack of communication during this entire process, or Logan Webb, who responded to Gausman in agreement:
What even is this team anymore? What are they good at? What makes them special? What makes them worth watching, or thinking about, or respecting? What kind of future could they possibly have, if they are going to spurn a star who’s willing to sign with them in an offseason when they desperately need a star?
One of the many, many ways in which Correa was a uniquely good target for the Giants was that he cost nothing but money. They didn’t have to trade prospects for him, and they didn’t have to give up any draft picks to sign him. All they had to do was pay him more than anyone else. They agreed to pay him, and then they backed out.
Not signing Correa cost the Giants more than signing him ever could have. It cost them respect, and standing. It cost them wins this year, and next year, and for years to come. It cost them fan engagement, which will show up in lower attendance, lower ratings, less interest. It cost them so, so much. And all they saved was money.
Programming note: Unless the Giants make a big move, I’m taking next week off from writing. Since the Giants don’t have any big moves left that they can make, that means I hope you enjoy your holidays and I’ll see you in 2023, which hopefully will be less horribly disappointing than 2022.
Gausman with a solid cookie metaphor is easily the best part of this series of events.
Giants Bra$$: "Sure, I have no qualms spending $350m on Correa. We'll insure the investment like any responsible organization would."
Insurance Co. Doctor: "I'm not insuring this surgically repaired leg for 13 years."
Guants Bra$$: "The corporation cannot act irresponsibly, this deal is scuttled!"
$teve Cohen: "GIMME"
MLB at large: /Nelson Muntz .gif Ha-Ha!