Mets release 13-word statement as Carlos Correa deal with Twins becomes official

The Mets weren’t able to cross the finish line with star shortstop Carlos Correa, who jumped ship from a second-different team this winter when he and Scott Boras opted to sign a six-year, $200 million deal with the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.

“It was a lot of challenges thrown at us,” Correa said Wednesday. “But at the end of the day, he got me to a place where I’m happy, where I feel right at home, where I feel like we have a chance to win every single year.”

The Mets weren’t nearly as articulate when they released a statement on Correa and the broken-down talks on Wednesday afternoon.

“We were unable to reach an agreement,” the statement read. “We wish Carlos all the best.”

While it took nearly three weeks for the Mets to try and renegotiate the original 12-year, $315 million agreement after concerns cropped up on his medicals stemming from a surgically repaired right fibula, the Twins finalized the deal and made it official by Wednesday.

Hours later, they were re-introducing Correa to the Minnesota media with Boras continuing to point toward the concept of differences in medical opinions as to why things fell through with the Mets — and with the San Francisco Giants before that.

“This scenario is about a large separation in the orthopedic community about functional fitness and clinical exam versus looking at an MRI,” Boras said. “Surgeons who don’t treat athletes but do a lot of surgery will look at an MRI and say one thing and doctors who treat patients and look at them find little credence in the MRI when they see dramatic performance, particularly over an eight-year span. And they’re going to reward that with functional fitness and say certain athletes have certain pain levels, certain tolerance…

“There is a dramatic chasm between how some doctors feel and other doctors feel about the longevity of a player’s performance.”

The Mets offered Correa six years guaranteed for $157.5 million, or $26.25 million per season before options built in to the deal — including annual physicals — provided a chance for the 28-year-old to earn the entirety of that original $315 million deal over 12 years.

However, the Twins offered more guaranteed money over six guaranteed years ($33.3 million AAV) with a four-year vesting option that would bump it up to $270 million. That certainly suggests that they’re more confident in Correa’s leg than the Mets were.

“Doctors have difference of opinions,” Correa said. “I had a lot of doctors tell me I was fine. I had some doctors that said it wasn’t so fine. It was shocking to me since I had this surgery, I never missed a game [because of it] or got treatment in my ankle.

“My ankle has never hurt. When the news came it was a little shocking. But in my mind, with the expertise of some doctors… I’m going to treat it like I’ve always treated it.”