Carlos Correa and the Orioles? We all could use a smile, and got one with the mere thought of it.
Carlos Correa and the Orioles? We all could use a smile, and got one with the mere thought of it.
All winter long, the gallows humor of Orioles Twitter embraced the idea of signing Carlos Correa. All it took was one report to turn those jokes into something worth smiling over.
In the Scandinavian winter day that is this MLB lockout – very, very dark, pretty much all the time – a burst of bright color flashed through our worlds this week.
The defining meme of the Orioles’ offseason came to life, and the extent to which it was actually meaningful didn’t matter. Carlos Correa and the Orioles? The Orioles and Carlos Correa? In a time in the sport where literally nothing is good, too good to be true doesn’t exactly apply.
According to reporter Raul Ramos, the Orioles and the two-time All-Star Correa were in talks before the lockout for a front-loaded 10-year, $350 million free agent deal that would no-doubt shock the baseball world and transform the Orioles’ rebuild ahead of schedule.
It would also make the devoted corner of fans whose lockout coping mechanism was to post through it, and post about how the Orioles were going to sign Correa when the lockout was over, quite happy. (Their work is highlighted throughout.)
I laughed when asked about it on 105.7 The Fan Tuesday, not because of any kind of my own contrary reporting to debunk the notion would make it a joke, but because the mere notion is a really funny thought for more than the obvious reasons.
Let’s get the facts out of the way. The Orioles’ front office, including executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias, is intimately familiar with Correa after selecting him first overall in the 2012 MLB draft. The Orioles have deliberately not given out any kind of meaningful free agent contract, let alone of that size, since the Chris Davis contract before the 2016 season.
And Elias himself, asked about diving into the impressive shortstop market this winter at the end of September, said: “I can’t rule anything out. But we’re going to be very cognizant of who we are and where we are, and I do think that the time for the Orioles of making the largest splash at the winter meetings is not right now.”
The Orioles are still exactly where they were competitively in September, but it’s admittedly not winter meetings right now. They didn’t even happen because the owners locked out the players in an early-December labor tactic that they claimed would speed up negotiations but turned out to be out of a cynical and unproductive playbook that led to this week’s news that the season would be delayed. (My stance on that situation has not changed.)
But before that lockout hit, the Orioles were active by their own standards. They signed infielder Rougned Odor, and right-hander Jordan Lyles, to major league deals. The latter was worth a guaranteed $7 million and could be as much as $17 million, and in the most optimistic view heralded at least the willingness for the Orioles to spend money on their major league roster for 2022, a year where even if they won’t be competitive they plan to reach the corner that means they’re turning that way.
Signing Correa would be a whole new level, but it’s worth exploring why they would be interested in such a thing. The initial report cited Correa as being the leader the Orioles wanted to bring them forward. Such a move would be a statement of intent, for sure, and all the intangible characteristics that made Elias and company believe back with the Astros that Correa had the growth mindset they were looking for likely still carry now. Add to that the maturity and on-field experience in what the Orioles are trying to do working, and there’s plenty of reason to add Correa to the mix.
The issue is the money, and everything to do with that. The Orioles’ rebuild is premised on the idea that they can’t afford to spend on contracts like this. That’s the domain of their big-market rivals, the thinking goes. Instead, they need to create what Elias promised would be an elite talent pipeline to develop such stars for themselves, with the added bonus that homegrown stars are much more cost-effective.
Three-plus years into that, and it’s going pretty well. On the left side of the infield alone, the Orioles have potential big-leaguers in Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo, and Joey Ortiz who can be part of championship-caliber teams in years to come, should they continue on their current trajectories.
That’s not an impediment to signing someone like Correa on a big-money deal in the sense of blocking them. You can never have too many good players, and a homegrown an inexpensive core with the likes of Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, and Adley Rutschman means they’ll be able to fit in some big salaries.
As it stands now, the assumption is they’ll be trading for some high-profile starters via trade to bolster a roster with all of them. Signing Correa means more of those well-regarded infielders would be trade chips to address that deficiency, and if they target the right pitchers, there’s nothing wrong with that model.
And yet, there would be something very unseemly about a team like the Orioles racking up 100-loss seasons and leaning into their homegrown rebuild under the auspices of market-driven economic disadvantage and signing Correa to a contract that more than doubles the club record. That’s especially true if it happens right after a collective bargaining agreement that’s so contentious and will, even if the players lock in gains, will likely still lock in and codify so many aspects that the tanking Orioles have tried to take advantage of.
None of that would make it less fun, though. It would be a reward for the fans who have literally posted through this miserable lockout, and would instantly change the way people think of what the Orioles are doing, a la Jayson Werth signing with the Washington Nationals a decade ago.
The moment makes it harder to pull off. This work stoppage, and the manner it has come about, is devastating to all fans. I was surprised at how legitimately upset I was Tuesday evening, and can’t imagine I’m alone. Put the frustration for someone who actively chooses to like baseball with so many other more appealing options onto the plight of an Orioles fan, who has been asked to just accept years of a terrible product on a promise of long-term success, and it’s even worse.
Perhaps it’s not exactly gallows humor that provided three months of jokes about the Orioles signing Correa, but a better way to describe it is hard to come by. Covering the major league team for the newspaper of record and making the conscious decision to excuse a lot of bad baseball while paying attention to what might eventually change that was a loaded proposition. I got paid to do it, and am lucky that was the case. A lot more people looked at it, took what was happening at face value, and stayed invested because they just wanted to.
With the idea of Correa in an Orioles uniform, those who toughed it out on faith alone seem to have latched onto an idea that runs absolutely counter to everything they chose to believe when it comes to this team. MLB has tested everyone’s faith, let alone theirs. Whether it happens or not, they deserved whatever jolt this week’s Correa reports gave them.
And we all needed the chuckle the mere thought of the Orioles signing him brought. Didn’t all those Spiderman actors just make the meme a reality? Who says lightning can’t strike twice?
All I want to know is if I should hang on for the ride or not.
I'm either incredibly petty, full of integrity or just frozen solid in my commitment to the pipeline rebuild, but I have not enjoyed the idea of Correa as an O--and that's because he's a cheater. Great piece, Jon.