Correa reunion in play for Twins at Meetings

As the baseball world has descended upon San Diego to start the game’s annual Winter Meetings, large offers for Jacob deGrom, Justin Verlander and Trea Turner highlighted the beginning of the anticipated run on the highest expertise on the free-agent market, centered across the high-end beginning pitchers and shortstops.

Until shortstop Carlos Correa got here alongside, the Twins had by no means dipped into that elite echelon of free agent on the very, very high of the market — however it is a totally different offseason. Minnesota is sort of compelled to be open to it now, after seeing what Correa did for the membership final season and noting his curiosity in returning to the Twin Cities.

Manager Rocco Baldelli stated he had dinner with Correa to proceed the Twins’ ongoing dialogue, however president of baseball operations Derek Falvey famous that there’s “nothing new” in the meanwhile to report when it comes to motion concerning Correa.

“I don’t have specific thoughts on timeline,” Falvey stated. “I think the market dictates that to some degree and as long as we just remain open with our lines of communication, I don’t think it changes.”

“He’s a guy that we obviously want and care a lot about, and think can be an enormous factor for us for a long time, playing at shortstop and leading,” Baldelli stated. “We think we’ve positioned ourselves well to be one of the highest priority options for him. So, we feel good about that. We just have to let things play out and become comfortable doing that, which we’re doing right now.”

Needless to say, the circumstances and conversations are a lot totally different this time round.

It’s not a rapidly scraped-together afternoon of Zoom calls to barter a rapid-fire, short-term settlement, because it was final March when Correa first arrived to the Twins. Now, Correa already has the baseline information and luxury; it’s extra in regards to the membership promoting Correa on how they’ll win, with Baldelli noting that the shortstop continues to dig deeper and provides suggestions on numerous subjects and conditions with regard to the franchise, as a result of Correa’s focus stays on profitable.

“He is so aware of what’s going on around him that he understands our situation well. He understands our young Minor League players that are coming now and where each of them are at in their careers, and probably has his own way of thinking about those guys and valuing them in his mind and how they’re going to help the team in the future,” Baldelli stated.

But given the tempo of the market, the Twins aren’t letting the Correa uncertainty maintain up their different pursuits. Falvey characterised the catching market as a “much more active” space for the Twins in the meanwhile as they search a companion behind the plate for 25-year-old Ryan Jeffers.

So, if Correa finally ends up elsewhere, will the Twins be in place to pivot shortly? And do they really feel the strain to make one other splash with their payroll flexibility in that case, whether or not with one other star shortstop (Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson) or in any other case?

“I would say I don’t feel a specific pressure — if there’s no Carlos, then there’s one other player we have to get,” Falvey stated. “We have to just be thoughtful and in the market, and make sure we know what is moving. If we find there’s another good way to make our team better, we’re going to have that conversation. Quite frankly, we’re having them now, because we need to be prepared.”

With few obvious must shore up on the present roster and payroll flexibility to spare, it does appear to be the case because the Twins set up their curiosity in elite free brokers like Correa and left-hander Carlos Rodón that they’re extra keen to make these splashier, greater commitments at this level of their aggressive cycle. And it’s only a matter of discovering a match, as they did with Josh Donaldson (4 years, $92 million) two offseasons in the past and Correa (three years, $105.3 million) lower than a yr in the past.

“I think we’ve opened ourselves up over the last couple of seasons to having those conversations, and maybe agents look at us differently than they did a few years ago prior to having some of those types of players on the roster,” Falvey stated. “So, I guess the answer is, yeah, we’re spending time looking at those types of players across the board. Will it match up? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.”