The New York Mets have company in the Carlos Correa bidding. Steve Cohen and his front office continued to negotiate on a revised contract on Thursday, more than two weeks after initially reaching an agreement on a 12-year deal worth $315 million, according to Jon Heyman and Greg Joyce of the New York Post, but Correa's agent, Scott Boras, "renewed contact with at least another interested team or two" -- identified as the Twins by the St. Paul Pioneer Press -- on Thursday as talks "ran into at least a hiccup or two."
On Friday, SNY's Andy Martino reported the Mets are "growing frustrated" with negotiations, and are considering walking away from the deal entirely, but cautioned that the same source believes the deal will still go through. If not, Boras and Correa could file a grievance given Cohen's public comments about the agreement.
"We needed one more thing, and this is it," Cohen told the New York Post last month. "This really makes a big difference. I feel like our pitching was in good shape. We needed one more hitter. This puts us over the top."
Correa's agreement with the Mets has been in limbo since New York developed concerns following a physical. Those concerns are believed to pertain to his lower right leg. Correa suffered a significant injury to that limb when he was a minor-league player in the Houston Astros system. He hasn't been placed on the injured list because of his right leg in the time since, but the Mets aren't alone in having some trepidation about that particular injury.
Keep in mind, Correa had reached a similar agreement with the San Francisco Giants earlier in the winter. The Giants also expressed worry about Correa's lower right leg, leading Boras to reopen negotiations with the Mets, who had already made a last-minute bid for him. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal speculated on his podcast about how the Correa deal might be tweaked, saying the following, according to a transcription provided by NBC Sports Bay Area.
"The way to do it in a situation like this is to put something in the contract called an 'exclusion clause' and that basically says if a player spends X number of days on the injured list with this specific injury, the specific injury to that part of his leg, then you can void future years or you can lower the guarantee, there are all kinds of ways to do it," Rosenthal said. "Now obviously if you're Correa and Boras you don't want this kind of language because it lowers the value of the contract and creates this uncertainty. Clearly, it doesn't have the same."
Correa, who is expected to move to third base out of deference to Francisco Lindor if the Mets deal gets done, entered the offseason ranked by CBS Sports as the third best free agent available, trailing only Aaron Judge and Jacob deGrom.
