Carlos Correa, forever tainted by the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, is among the most hated players in baseball.

Correa’s injury history includes a 2014 surgery to repair a fractured fibula and back issues that hounded and limited him in 2018 and 2019, when he played in just 185 of a total possible 324 regular-season games.

Though Correa has taken the field in 284 combined games the past two seasons, the injury concerns will follow him — and perhaps did follow him to his brief stop in San Francisco. Correa agreed to a monster contract with the Giants before a “difference of opinion,” as Giants president Farhan Zaidi put it (echoing agent Scott Boras), regarding Correa’s physical exam led to the dissolution of the contract.

As Tuesday became Wednesday and an off-the-market star suddenly was back on the market, the Mets pounced on a player trailing red flags. Presuming he passes the team’s physical, Correa will be on the left side of Buck Showalter’s infield for 12 years. In the very days after the 28-year-old “failed” another team’s doctor visit, the Mets extended the polarizing star a $315 million pact in the type of stunning, risky move that baseball teams have long tried to avoid with risky players: Today’s star can become tomorrow’s contractual albatross.