Mets, Carlos Correa reportedly agree to 12-year, $315M contract after Giants flagged medical issue

Free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa won't be going to the San Francisco Giants after all.

Hours after the Giants postponed Correa's introductory news conference Tuesday, in the early hours of the morning on the East Coast, the New York Mets swooped in and reportedly offered Correa a 12-year, $315 million deal to play third base.

And he accepted.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Correa's team disagreed with the Giants regarding a medical issue.

Correa, 28, reportedly agreed to a 13-year, $350 million contract with the Giants on Dec. 13. San Francisco had made a substantial offer (reportedly around $360 million) to slugging outfielder Aaron Judge but lost out when he decided to re-sign with the New York Yankees. Correa was reportedly at the top of the Giants' offseason to-do list and would've represented a major improvement for a team that struggled to repeat its surprising 2021 success.

But just hours before Correa was reportedly going to be introduced in a news conference Tuesday, the Giants suddenly postponed it. No reason was given, but according to the Associated Press, an unknown medical issue had come up during Correa's physical. Because deals don't go forward until a physical is complete and approved, the Giants apparently chose to wait to introduce Correa.

We don't know what the Giants did or would've done from there. They might've tried to renegotiate Correa's contract or canceled the deal altogether. They probably didn't imagine that the Mets and their extremely rich owner, Steve Cohen, could come swooping in like a giant bird of prey to steal one of their targets like a tasty snack, but that appears to be exactly what happened.

The Mets have yet to acknowledge the signing, but the Giants released a statement regarding Correa's apparent decision to sign with the Mets instead of them.

The Mets' spending spree

The Mets came into the offseason in a slightly tricky situation. They won 101 regular-season games in 2021 but spent the back half of the season slowly giving up the 10-game lead they'd amassed in the National League East. They lost the division and were then eliminated in the wild-card series.

How do you improve a team that won 101 games but still wasn't good enough to win it all?

Cohen believes he has the answer: Spend all the money.

Some of those players, such as Edwin Diaz, were on the team last year. Some, such as Justin Verlander, were signed to replace similar players who moved on.

But Correa doesn't fall into either of those categories. He's a new addition and a massive improvement to the roster, and he makes the NL East scarier and more competitive.

If Cohen's mission is to make sure the Mets don't play an outstanding regular season that ends mere days after the playoffs start, he might be closer than ever to accomplishing it.