SF Giants agree to deal with star SS Carlos Correa on 13-year, $350 million contract
The SF Giants did it! They finally have a franchise cornerstone this offseason. Former Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa has agreed to a 13-year, $350 million contract to take his talents to San Francisco. The deal includes a no-trade clause and was first reported by Jeff Passan of ESPN. Correa was ranked the third-best player in Giants Baseball Insider's free-agent rankings.
The SF Giants signed former Twins shortstop Carlos Correa. (2022)
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants were reportedly front-runners to sign Correa after losing the Aaron Judge sweepstakes at the Winter Meetings. However, after seeing the front office fall short in the pursuit of several top free agents this offseason, fans were rightfully nervous that Correa would spurn the Giants for another team. Instead, he immediately becomes the face of the franchise.
Over his career, Correa is a .279/.357/.479 hitter with 155 home runs. He won the 2015 American League Rookie of the Year award and has since been selected to two All-Star teams and won a Gold Glove. While he won a World Series with the Astros in 2017, that title was shrouded in the sign-stealing scandal that has followed Correa throughout his career. To his credit, Correa was one of the few people involved to give a candid apology following the league's investigation and has continued putting up great numbers in the years since.
In his lone season with the Twins, Correa hit .291/.366/.467 with 22 home runs, producing offensively roughly 40% more runs per plate appearance than a league-average hitter per OPS+ and wRC+.
Here's a snippet of what our own JD Salazar wrote about Correa in their free-agent breakdown of the star shortstop:
The thing that jumps out the most is that Correa crushes the ball. He’s routinely in the top 5% of the league in max exit velocity, and his Statcast page is filled with a LOT of red (unlike tax sheets and grade school papers, this is a good thing) in categories like expected slugging and barrel percentage. That’s a must for any free-agent hitter coming to Oracle Park, even if the Giants have done their best to shed its perception as a pitcher’s ballpark in the last couple of years.
Correa’s also been a great defender over his career. From 2018 through 2021, Correa ranked in the top 3% of defenders according to Outs Above Average. For a team whose defensive deficiencies wreaked so much havoc on their playoff hopes, bringing in a plus defender on the infield is pretty much essential for the type of contract Correa’s looking for. He’s also younger than Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, and Dansby Swanson, which makes the back end of his contract a little easier to swallow.
Correa's contract is easily the largest (and longest) handed out in Giants franchise history. Still, the length of his contract serves mostly to lower the average annual value of the deal, which benefits the Giants from a business and luxury tax perspective. Assuming the deal is not structured in an unusual way, Correa will make roughly $26.6 million per season.
His acquisition will likely shift longtime Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford to third base where Crawford could platoon with corner bats like David Villar and J.D. Davis. However, those are problems for tomorrow. For today, the SF Giants can celebrate finally landing an offensive star that can feature in the middle of the team's lineup in 2023 and beyond.
