The Minnesota Twins are “getting creative” with their free agency offers to keep shortstop Carlos Correa in Minneapolis, according to a Thursday morning report from FanNation.
Minnesota Star-Tribune beat writer La Velle E. Neal III said the team is experimenting with different lengths and total money offered per year. It could take a free agency deal with as many as nine years and as much as $300 million to keep Carlos Correa on a Minnesota Twins roster that went 78-84 last season, said KSTP 5 sports reporter Darren Wolfson.
“They're offering him different deals to see what he'd like,” Neal said on the Chin Music podcast last Wednesday. “There are ten years at a certain AAV, I think eight years at another certain AAV and then a six-year deal, which of course would have the highest AAV, which would be over $30 million a year.”
Carlos Correa signed a three-year, $105.3 million deal with the Twins that included opt-out options in his first and second season, using the former to officially become a free agent in mid October.
“With the year that I have had, my health and my being at the best moment of my career at 28, that is the right decision,” Correa told the El Nuevo Día newspaper based in Puerto Rico.
The Twins have reached out to Boston Red Sox All-Star shortshop Xander Bogaerts and National League Golden Glove winner Atlanta Braves shortshop Dansby Swanson for potential deals should a free agency deal with Correa fall through.
Still, Wolfson said, the team is willing to make Correa the richest man in Minnesota Twins history this free agency if it means keeping the AL Platinum Glove winner for the near future.
“They are going to make him a very nice offer,” Wolfson said on the Mackey and Judd show. “In fact, I was told this week that they are pushing for closure sooner rather than later.
“They are going to make the richest offer in team history.”