DALLAS — A picture of what life without Carlos Correa would be like is fresh in Rocco Baldelli’s mind after the shortstop missed 53 games last season with an injury.
Though the probability of the Minnesota Twins trading the superstar shortstop seems minuscule, the manager made it clear Tuesday he’d like to pencil Correa’s name into the lineup for as long as he can.
Correa’s name has generated a little buzz this week at the Winter Meetings as a possible fallback option for teams that came up empty in the Juan Soto sweepstakes.
Though members of the Twins front office have maintained their goal is to contend again in 2025, they’ve also indicated they’re willing to listen to any ideas floated their way while maintaining it would take a huge payoff to consider trading Correa, who will earn $36 million this season and is owed $128 million over four seasons.
An All-Star for the third time last season, Correa batted .310/.388/.517 with 14 home runs and 54 RBIs in 367 plate appearances, producing 4.3 WAR according to FanGraphs.
“When (Correa) and (Byron Buxton) were not on the field late in the year, we were a different team,” Baldelli said. “There’s no doubt about that. Absolutely (we) could have handled it better as a team. But no, it’s true. When you take a guy away who’s one of the top players in the game … you’re really going to be left searching and looking to figure things out. So what do you do about that? There’s probably not an answer to that question, not one answer at least.”
Though a self-imposed payroll limit means their financial picture is much different than it was two years ago when he signed a six-year, $200 million deal, the Twins believe Correa is worth the investment.
Whether it’s the way he demonstrated leadership by playing through plantar fasciitis for roughly three-quarters of the 2023 season or the leadership vacuum they felt in his absence when plantar fasciitis struck again in 2024, the Twins realize few players could provide them with Correa’s package of skills and qualities.
Correa is a player everyone in the clubhouse looks to as an example of how to carry themselves on and off the field. He’s known for his high baseball IQ and leadership. The Twins struggled in his absence after the All-Star break with Baldelli even admonishing his young team in early September for its unprofessional play during a trying Tampa Bay-Kansas City road trip.
Along with several other key injuries, the Twins collapsed without the veteran presence of Correa and Buxton, who missed 28 games in August and September with a hip injury. Both returned in mid-September, but it was too late. Already in a tailspin, the Twins went 12-27 down the stretch and missed the playoffs by four games.
Correa’s right foot appears to be responding well to offseason treatment. He recently had a second good visit with a foot specialist and was optimistic about the situation when speaking with Twins athletic trainer Nick Paparesta.
“He’s tracking really well,” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “He told Nick Paparesta that he feels better at this stage than he did last year dealing with the other plantar issue going into December. I think that’s a really good sign. We’ll just keep tracking in the right direction. The one thing I can tell you about Carlos — no one is going to be more attentive to the things he needs to do over the course of the offseason to make sure he’s in a good place.”
Baldelli thinks the Twins would be in a great place with Correa locked in at shortstop. He’s unclear about the long-term view and could see Correa eventually sliding over to third base later in his career. But even with the 30-year-old’s history of foot injuries, Baldelli likes Correa running the infield from shortstop.
“He was exceptional last year,” Baldelli said. “He did it on both sides of the ball. He does it after the game, before the game. He sets a tone. … I think he still has all of the qualities that you would look for in a very good shortstop.”
Here’s a look at what else is going on around the Winter Meetings.
• The Twins took a minor hit Tuesday afternoon when they dropped in the MLB Draft Lottery. The Twins fell to the 16th overall pick after finishing with the 14th-worst record in the majors last season.
Two years ago, the Twins were one of the lottery’s biggest winners when they moved up to the fifth overall pick from the projected 13th spot, which allowed them to select top prospect Walker Jenkins that June.
• Falvey identified a right-handed bat as one of the team’s biggest needs this offseason. The Twins lost utilityman Kyle Farmer to free agency (Farmer signed a one-year deal with Colorado) and could lose Carlos Santana and Manuel Margot as well. Those departures would leave voids at first base and in the corner outfield spots. Even if the Twins used a combination of Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien at first, there’d still be enough at-bats to go around.
• Baldelli and bench coach Jayce Tingler held a productive meeting with Royce Lewis and Trevor Larnach, who are working out together this offseason about 30 miles north of Dallas. Baldelli referenced the workout when asked about his thoughts on the team’s disappointing end to the 2024 season.
“It was a tough, hurtful way to end the year,” Baldelli said. “It didn’t feel good on any level the way the season ended, but that’s life. What are you going to do about it? You’re going to use it to your benefit somehow going forward. You are going to use it to motivate you. You’re not going to want to feel that ever again. I think we have a lot of players — something that I was just chatting with Larnach and Royce about (Monday). They were talking about it as well. You want that to not just come from the manager or the coaching staff; you want that to come from within, from the players in the clubhouse, and I think we’re going to see that from our guys. I think we’re going to see a very motivated group.”
(Photo of Carlos Correa: David Berding / Getty Images)
