The New York Yankees remained relatively silent during postseason 1.0 while watching other teams substantially improve their teams. Before the MLB imposed a lockout, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien were scooped up by the Texas Rangers, Javier Baez went to the Detroit Tigers. Pitchers Robbie Ray went to the Mariners, and Kevin Gausman joined his new team, the Toronto Blue Jays.
Those moves and a few others left just the number one free agent Carlos Correa as the only prize left before the lockout. The New York Yankees have often been mentioned as a target to fill their open position at shortstop. With the lockout, they haven’t even been able to talk to him or his agent. Now, Correa has made his own move, switching agents to the big-name agent Scott Boras. The move may affect how the Yankees deal with Correa.
Boras managed to get a huge ten-year $325 million contract for Corey Seager, beating MLB analysts’ projections of $305 million. You can be sure Boras will be looking for a similar amount for Correa, if not more. Now, the question is if the Yankees will be willing to come even close to that kind of commitment. Boras and the Yankees have worked together successfully, most recently making Gerrit Cole a Yankee for $324 million. Boras is the premier baseball agent signing some of baseball’s biggest stars. Bryce Harper’s $330 million contract with the Phillies was one notable signing.
There is little question that the Yankees would like to sign the arguably best shortstop in the business, but they will have to work through issues. The number one issue is to decide if they will sign Correa or another big name to the position or hold out hiring a stopgap shortstop while waiting for shortstops Oswald Peraza and number one prospect Anthony Volpe mature to the major league level.
Another big consideration is if the Yankees will be willing to add another massive contract to the team. They already have mega contracts with Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole. In addition, superstar Aaron Judge is waiting in the wings for a huge contract extension with the Yankees. Aaron Judge will undoubtedly be part of the decision as he becomes a free agent at the end of this season.
What Correa’s hiring of the Boras Corporation to get him the best deal there is out there means to the Yankees is anyone’s guess, but you can be sure he will be looking for a mega-contract that the Yankees may not be willing to accept. The Yankees, in addition to shortstop, also need a number two type starting pitcher to replace Corey Kluber, who is now with the Tampa Bay Rays. They also have to decide if they will keep Luke Voit at first base, or rehire Anthony Rizzo or maybe even Matt Olson.
Back in November, I put a poll on several Facebook Yankees groups asking who Yankee fans would want for their new shortstop replacing Gleyber Torres. They put Carlos Correa as their number two choice at 26% of the vote behind the 51% vote for Corey Seager. Of course, what the fans and the Yankees want could be very different. Most voters considered Correa’s tarnished reputation as being part of the Astro’s cheating scandal during the 2017 campaign.
The 7.2 WAR shortstop was offered $160 million over six years by the Houston Astros, according to Mark Berman of FOX26. Correa rejected that. It is not likely that the Houston Astros will up that offer as they already can move Alex Bregman to shortstop and acquire a third baseman which would be far more cost-effective.
As the sweepstakes for Correa continued, it looked as though the Detroit Tigers would be the likely landing place for Correa as he would link back to his old manager A J Hinch the Tiger’s new Tiger manager. That scenario looked hot for a while, with MLB.com, MLBrumors.com, the New York Post, and the Athletic all predicting that Correa would sign with the Tigers. The Tigers It was suggested that $300 million would get the deal done—something the Tigers could absorb if the contract were end-loaded. Nothing came of that to date.
Now, with Scott Boras as his agent, Boras will look for a similar contract that he got for Seager when the lockout is over. One thing is for sure, once the owners and players can come to an agreement (if they can), several teams will be looking to sign Correa. The saga will continue at some point before the season starts.