Roughly 12 hours after the Giants were scheduled to hold a press conference to announce their signing of Carlos Correa, Steve Cohen swooped in from Hawaii to land the Mets’ newest star and send their record payroll skyrocketing once again.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Mets and Correa agreed to a 12-year, $315 million contract, pending a physical — which is where Correa’s initial agreement with the Giants on a 13-year, $350 million deal fell apart because of a medical concern.
Correa’s arrival is set to push the Mets to another level, and not just in luxury tax payroll, which now sits at roughly $382 million for 2023 — the highest in North American sports history and $89 million past MLB’s highest tax threshold — after securing nine free-agent deals this offseason worth a whopping $806.16 million in total value. Overall, combining the payroll and luxury taxes, Cohen is projected to be on the hook for $491.709 million in 2023.
Barring another snag in his physical with the Mets — the hope is that the medical evaluation will happen by this weekend — Correa will move to third base with his fellow Puerto Rican and good friend Francisco Lindor already entrenched at shortstop. It gives the Mets a powerhouse left side of the infield and adds the big bat that their lineup had been missing, with Correa potentially slotting in between Brandon Nimmo and Lindor or between Lindor and Pete Alonso.
Carlos Correa was a surprising signing for Mets fans to wake up to in the early hours of Wednesday. Getty Images“We needed one more thing, and this is it,” Cohen told The Post’s Jon Heyman from Hawaii, where he is vacationing, at around 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday. “This was important. … This puts us over the top. This is a good team. I hope it’s a good team!”
Shortly after the Mets made an 11th-hour push to sign Correa last week, he appeared headed for San Francisco as the two sides agreed to a $350 million deal. Instead, Correa’s ensuing physical presented a cause for concern for the Giants, who postponed Tuesday’s scheduled press conference just hours before it was set to begin.
“While we are prohibited from disclosing confidential medical information, as Scott Boras stated publicly, there was a difference of opinion over the results of Carlos’ physical examination,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said in a statement Wednesday. “We wish Carlos the best.”
Correa has dealt with back issues in the past, but that was not the holdup in his deal with the Giants; what was remains unknown — at least publicly. His only trips to the injured list over the past three seasons have been due to COVID and a contused right middle finger. The only major surgery he had came in 2014 to repair a fractured right fibula he sustained while playing at High-A.
Boras, Correa’s agent, reportedly gave the Giants more time to review the medical information, but by around 4 p.m. ET Tuesday, the team told the superagent they were not ready to move forward with their letter of agreement, according to Sports Illustrated.
That opened the door for Cohen to pick up where he left off in negotiating a deal with Boras, which the Mets owner did while having dinner and a martini in Hawaii. By early Wednesday morning, they had reached a deal.
“This really makes a big difference,” Cohen said. “I felt like our pitching was in good shape. We needed one more hitter.”
Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler had already reeled in some big fish this offseason, signing three-time Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander, re-signing Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo, and adding Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, Omar Narvaez, Adam Ottavino and David Robertson.
But the addition of Correa, a career .279 hitter with a .836 OPS across eight major league seasons (seven with the Astros and one with the Twins), has pushed both the club’s expectations and payroll even higher.
“What the heck’s the difference?” said Cohen, who is projected to owe more than $100 million in luxury taxes. “If you’re going to make the move, make the move.”
Cohen’s latest splash, pushing him even further past the highest luxury-tax threshold, led one rival NL executive to claim, “the system is broken.” MLB and the players’ association agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement last March.
— Additional reporting by Jon Heyman
