The Mets consulted with the identical physician who offered the Giants with a detrimental evaluation about Carlos Correa’s proper ankle challenge and induced San Francisco to again away from their $350 million take care of Correa earlier than the Mets pulled their very own $315 million settlement with the star free agent shortstop, sources confirmed to The Post.
Correa revealed the state of affairs involving the identical physician in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
After the primary two offers had been scuttled, Correa wound up signing a $200 million, six-year take care of the incumbent Twins, who stayed in contact with the star because the three-team drama was taking part in out.
“The Giants used an ankle specialist who didn’t go me,’’ Correa instructed The Athletic. “Then the Mets used the identical specialist, who clearly wasn’t going to go me. He had already given an opinion to a different workforce about my ankle. He was not going to vary that. He was going to face by what he was saying, after all, as a result of that’s what he believed.’’
After the Mets’ workforce physician, Mark Drakos, a foot surgeon at HSS, consulted with famous ankle surgeon Dr. Robert Anderson, whose dire opinion about Correa’s ankle induced the Giants to drag their provide, the Mets additionally backed away from their authentic settlement.
The Mets tried to transform the deal and had been prepared to ensure Correa $157.5 million over six years, with the potential for the opposite $157.5 million within the following six seasons.
Instead, Correa acquired the assured $200 million from Minnesota with the potential to earn one other $70 million in incentives if he hits plate look benchmarks on the finish of the deal. The Twins are maybe most accustomed to Correa since he performed for them in 2022 and had a number of physicals with them.
It’s believed the Mets consulted different exterior docs, as nicely, as is usually the case concerning any vital contract.
Mets GM Billy Eppler has declined remark concerning the Correa scenario. HIPAA legal guidelines restrict what groups can say publicly concerning medical conditions.
People accustomed to the Mets’ method say that whereas there’s no method to decide how lengthy his ankle might maintain up, they’d concern about precisely how lengthy that could be. Drakos examined Correa within the participant’s two-day Mets bodily, but it surely was an MRI examination that raised the priority.
Interestingly, Correa has not missed any days within the majors for that ankle, nor has he acquired any remedy for it, in accordance with him and agent Scott Boras. The ankle was surgically repaired in 2014 after he suffered an damage within the minors, with a steel plate inserted in that ankle throughout that surgical procedure. Correa did have a difficulty after a slide in September when he mentioned he felt “numb” within the space after a slide, however he proved to be OK.
“One thing I learned through the whole process is doctors have differences of opinions,” Correa mentioned on the press convention to re-introduce him within the Twin Cities.
Correa indicated he was shocked the ankle grew to become a difficulty in his interview with The Athletic.
“We did produce other ankle specialists take a look at it and say it was going to be fantastic, orthopedists who know me, even the one who did the surgical procedure on me,’’ Correa instructed the web site. “They had been wanting on the performance of the ankle, the way in which the ankle has been the previous eight years. I’ve performed at an elite degree the place my motion has by no means been compromised.’’
He added: “The one doctor that had never touched me or seen me or done a test on me, that was the one who said it wasn’t going to be fine.”
The shortstop felt assured sufficient with the offers with each the Giants and the Mets that he reached out to a number of gamers with the groups after agreeing to the offers, together with Francisco Lindor, who was going to remain at quick, with Correa shifting to 3rd base.
“Then the thing with the physical happened with the Mets and Scott started talking about [contract] language with their lawyers,’’ Correa said. “That’s when it looked like the deal was not going to get done, because of certain things with the language that were impossible to accomplish.”
Despite the roller-coaster journey this winter, Correa mentioned he has no bitterness towards the Giants or the Mets, or the physician who flunked him twice.
“Obviously, the doctors’ opinions give you an extra motivation to just go out there, perform and play out the whole contract in a beautiful way,’’ Correa said. “But proving to myself at the end of my career that all the work will pay off, that I was right, that’s all I honestly care about. There’s no hard feelings toward [the Giants’ and Mets’] organizations. There’s nothing but respect for them. Doctors have differences of opinion. That’s fine.”
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