A Homecoming King in 27 Days
Upon Further Review
The evening of September 20, 2022 in Kansas City was on-brand in terms of late Summer Midwest weather. It featured a thick, 84 degree steaming and stifling wet blanket of discomfort — with the kind of sulking humidity you could pierce with a plastic fork. Adding to the misery, the visiting and downtrodden Minnesota Twins (at KC Royals) were well aware of their inescapable fate, neatly dovetailing with the omnipresent tropical heat. Just 14 days from the Season’s conclusion, the Team’s losing record guaranteed a wealth of what-coulda-beens for the upcoming playoffs; as they’d be absent. For the second year in a row. But despite the malaise, the Twins had work to do. The top of the seventh inning would find the game tied, 4–4, complete with a full count. Carlos Correa, on first and the only runner on-base, was in the mood to get aggressive. Jose Miranda swung (and ultimately missed) at his final at-bat which instinctively set Carlos’s offensive plan into motion. Carlos ripped toward second and pressed into action his signature power-slide when disaster struck. His right shin collided with Royals second baseman Michael Massey and instantaneously Carlos fell to his back in pain. He reached for his ankle repeatedly as if the soothe the forthcoming pounding waves of heartache. He laid motionless on the crimson soil for what seemed an eternity before trundling to his feet, metaphorically and physically dusting himself off. Carlos limped slowly off the field, the soggy atmosphere stagnant around him, knowing full well that he had aggravated his 8-year old surgically-repaired ankle and, with it, likely gravely damaged his glittery post-season free agency plans. He nailed both counts. Carlos’s Achilles ankle would go on to fuel a wild, headline-grabbing, headspinning Christmas season and ultimately cost him $150M, seven years, two name-brand, big market Teams and one probable ginormous HIPAA violation. The contours of Carlos’s parabolic Winter were shapeshifted (and ultimately letdown) by just two words: pending physical. A routine formality for most, an escape clause for risk-averse Clubs and to Carlos, kryptonite.
The physicals baseball free agents are subject to — and the last mile before razzle dazzle contracts are consummated — aren’t the kind you’re thinking. There are no reels of disposable paper atop fluorescently-lit exam tables; no one is tapping a cartoonish reflex hammer against your knee nor placing an icy stethoscope against your chest listening for the pitter pat of your heart. Certainly no lollipops or Mickey Mouse balloons. Rather, MLB physicals better resemble full-scale invasions of intimate medial privacy. Euphemistically termed medical reviews, a phalanx of Team physicians and experts delve into all aspects of a prospect’s health. Up first comes a forensic review of the player’s electronic medical record which includes items including imaging, surgical histories and notes from athletic trainers. The notes from athletic trainers are filed daily on all players and are especially helpful in gauging the sweep of a player’s health over time. They can present as benignly as “Slight shoulder pain addressed with an ice pack; ready for play” or as seriously as “Hip stress fracture resulting from baseball hit, left game to be evaluated at hospital”. The notes oftentimes excess 1000 entries for a player with 4 years of experience and paint a portrait only an actuarial would love. After the digital review is complete, the player next undergoes a bumper crop of testing. 360 degree imaging in an MRI tube complement a detailed orthropedic exam. Next, cue the intern who arrives to harvest blood and urine samples. Finally, an athletic test similar to what you’d see at the NFL’s combine but in a condensed baseball form, plays out to measure items such as balance and acceleration. Only after this assessment battery is complete is the Team’s physician review panel convened to consider a player’s current and future health. A final report is then submitted to Ownership. The resulting final medical review findings are then balanced against the deal on the table at which point a GO or NO-GO decision is made.
Carlos knows this gauntlet VERY well and had become quite accustomed to its clinical intrusiveness having undergone three of them in just the past three months, each to varying degrees of sidewaysness. Common among the completed comprehensive medical reviews is a core focus on a fateful injury Carlos collected in 2014. At just 19 and a rising sensation in the minors, a discordant slide into third base painfully pressed pause on his ascent with a fractured right fibula just where it meets the ankle accompanied by ruptured ligaments as collateral damage. Subsequent surgery repaired his ligaments and his right fibula was patched together with a titanium plate. Carlos hasn’t looked back since. Along with his refashioned bionic ankle, Carlos’s meteoric trajectory in 2015 accelerated as he signed with the Astros where he became a face of the franchise and a regular recipient of World Series accolades. In the Fall of 2021, the Astros, unable to afford its stable of high octane talent, extended Carlos an $18.4M one year qualifying offer. Carlos couldn’t reject this deal fast enough and quickly worked to test the ridiculously profligate free agency waters. In March of this year, he signed a $105.3M three year contract with the Minnesota Twins anointing him as the highest paid infielder in MLB (Note: he passed the brutal medical review). The contract crucially included an opt-out clause at the conclusion of each Season, an exit ramp Carlos eagerly exercised this past November in his unquenchable thirst for a bigger sandbox. This set the stage for a snowy, icebound Christmas.
Carlos since his early days in the minors, always envisioned himself a keystone of a big market team; think LA, New York, Boston, Chicago. With his production and star power at an apex, Carlos decided after watching the 2022 World Series as a spectator to test the free agency waters once more to seek a golden paycheck with a name brand Club befitting his outsized status in Minnesota. He found no shortage of interest in just the markets he so desired. On December 15th, news that Carlos and the San Francisco Giants had reached a $350M/13year deal rocked sports media. Upon news of the announcement, Giants fans were sent into tizzy as they salivated for his arrival and the elevated gameplay he’d bring with him in elevating an already stellar, forever-in-contention Team. Just five days later on December 20th, his introduction to the media as a press event at Oracle Park was abruptly cancelled just three hours before it was set to commence. No official explanation was given. But behind the scenes, the Team’s medical review panel had submitted its findings from Carlos’s requisite physical to Ownership and the results were concerning especially considering the length of the proposed contract. Specifically, the panel took issue with Carlos’s supposed bionic ankle and its durability for yet another 13 years attached to an aging shortstop. Renegotiations immediately commenced to try and massage the contract with timing and conditional clauses. The back and forth was unproductive at which point Carlos’s agent, the legendary Scott Boras, disgusted, walked and reopened discussions with other suitors. Again, there were customers for Carlos’s wares. Overnight — sensationally — a deal with the New York Mets was ironed out. On December 21st, the Mets announced they had agreed to a $315M/12 year contract with Carlos. The news sent heads spinning once more across social media. The news was critically footmarked with two words: pending physical. Hungry for credibility and Wins, Mets owner Steve Cohen has shown every intent to bring the Commissioner’s Trophy home to Queens. One need look no further than to the pricey $87M/2 year deal that lured Justin Verlander to NYC just this past December 7th. In any event, upon news of the Mets-Carlos news, $1M in pre-sales were collected from the Team’s website in just one day. The future looked bright for Carlos and the Mets but for the approaching cloak of silence.
As Christmas bled into New Year’s Eve, nary a word was spoken since the noisy team announcement just 10 days prior. Media questions lobbed at Steve Cohen were answered in carefully worded, vague, circuitous-almost-philosophical responses. To which, eyeballs were seen rolling off reporters’ heads. While the Owner blustered, Carlos had been undergoing yet another arduous medical review. The results from Team physicians mirrored those of San Francisco’s. Would a surgically repaired ankle outlast a 12 year, papered contract? Nervous, the Mets set out to renegotiate, mimicking and incrementing all the sorts of carve-outs and conditions the Giants had sought in early December. As the talks dragged on and on, Scott Boras became more infuriated with each passing day in January. He felt the Mets were now publicly toying with Carlos’s reputation with baseball’s chattering class energetically engaging in parlor games as to how and what extent Carlos was broken. At this point, potential suitors all but evaporated having read the room illuminated with unsightly headlines painting Carlos as damaged goods. Scott Boras was left with no choice but to reengage talks with the only interested party left — the Minnesota Twins. Naturally, the Twins were quite familiar with Carlos’s health so a deal seemed a slam dunk. So it was quite comical to learn this past Tuesday that Carlos and the Twins had agreed to a $200M/6-year deal, pending physical. You can’t make this up. All is well and right in the AL today, as the Team officially (just yesterday) announced the deal to the media and that — yes — Carlos had indeed passed the Team’s medical review. At long last. With vesting options, Carlos’s latest deal is valued at $270M. Despite the holiday debacle, with the deal as it stands, Carlos will preside as the 8th highest paid shortstop in League history. Inflation meets Baseball.
Baseball players; they’re just like you and me. Except when they’re not. Carlos’s noteworthy wild ride back home to the Midwest, however, does find shared corollaries with we mere commoners. Nervously awaiting medical results after a gauntlet of picking, poking and prodding is a sentiment universal to the human condition. Compounding the testing with an empaneled committee of faceless, nameless people judging your worthiness walks a knife’s edge separating reality with the inhuman. And to have the supposed review undertaken with state-of-the art security and privacy governance only to have the results splashed about in the New York Post is at best, deflating. At worst, a giant HIPAA violation. Baseball is a lot of things. Legendary, magical, lucrative, mercurial, romantic, difficult. Carlos’s Christmas vacation demonstrates it can also oftentimes be humiliatingly cruel. Opening Day is 76 days away so…Hooray?
