Carlos Correa concern is coal in the Christmas stocking

There isn’t usually much baseball news right around Christmas so when the New York Mets bombshell dropped on Christmas Eve that the team had some of the same concerns as the San Francisco Giants, we were all a little worried.

It seems the Mets may agree that Correa isn’t the picture of health. What athlete truly is this deep into his career?

The added element that the club may not be able to back out of the contract because Steve Cohen went public about it is coal in the Christmas stocking. Coal does have its purpose, though. Those bad little boys and girls who get it brought to them on Christmas aren’t complaining about a brutally cold winter. They’ve got something to heat with.

How worried should Mets fans be about Carlos Correa’s health and his contract?

The contract thing is so overrated for the Mets. Steve Cohen has shown a will to spend as much as possible. Barring some kind of drastic change to the rules, it’s not going to hurt them much. Even if for some reason they aren’t able to add a clause (not Santa Claus) into the deal involving this injury concern, it doesn’t seem like the end of the world.

An injury concern is much different from an actual injury. Signing Correa to this deal and then finding out he doesn’t have use of one leg is something entirely different than what seems to be the issue with his leg. It sounds a lot like what the Mets knew about Seth Lugo and his partially torn UCL. Something may or may not eventually worsen with Correa. The longer the deal, the greater risk the Mets do take on.

The lesson here isn’t to avoid players with some injury concerns. Caught up in the same excitement as the fans, the one mistake was for Cohen to speak about the deal before it became official. It definitely is a mistake of his regardless of the ultimate outcome. He’s still learning this ownership thing, too. And as he has shown countless times, he gets as excited as anyone when the team gets better.

When it comes to this latest Correa news, we didn’t get exactly what we wanted. Faithful Mets fans won’t let it ruin their holiday. They’ve been through worse. This would have canceled Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter if the Wilpons were in charge. Enjoy the holiday season and worry when it becomes an actual problem.