What would a ‘dramatically different’ Carlos Correa contract with Mets look like?

It’s been two weeks since the New York Mets swooped in to nab Carlos Correa after his deal with the San Francisco Giants fell through — and we still don’t have a resolution on the finalizing of the contract.

Talks between the Mets and Correa’s camp, led by agent Scott Boras, on the 12-year, $315 original deal continue as the long-term sustainability of a surgically repaired right fibula from 2014 looms as the hold up of official handshakes and signatures.

The Mets hold most of the power in these negotiations. Correa’s leg has already led to one agreement with the Giants voided and another potential long-term, big-time payday fall into uncertainty. It wouldn’t be ideal to have the 28-year-old infielder head back to the open market for a third time this winter and hope to find a deal anywhere near the realm of what the Mets are offering.

It’s why Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic speculated the general consensus on “The Athletic Baseball Show” that a reworked deal between the Mets and Correa will be “dramatically different.”

“It’s not going to be 12 years, $315 million guaranteed,” Rosenthal said. “The question again is to what extent does the language change? Does the deal change? And how is Carlos Correa going to be once he gets through all this? Will he be a happy Met? Will he be upset? Who knows?”

What does ‘dramatically different’ look like?

This will come down to just how much Correa and Boras are willing to relent in talks with Mets owner Steve Cohen — and it’s important to note that what you read below is purely speculation.

The two-time All-Star is obviously looking to put down roots in one city for the long haul, but the most likely scenario in which that happens is that the Mets include language in his contract that would allow them to opt out or void the deal if he misses a certain number of games because of that surgically-repaired lower leg during a specific span of time.

For example, if he were to miss 100 games due to injury issues on that lower right leg over the first five years of the contract, the Mets can get out of the deal much earlier than expected.

These are clauses that Boras has worked into the previous contracts of clients like JD Martinez and Ivan Rodriguez, but they did not have to be utilized.

Yes, the Mets have all the leverage but they also want a happy player. And you don’t want to start off a relationship, especially a long-term relationship, with a player with a certain degree of contentiousness. You want that player to be comfortable with the deal he’s gotten and not feel like he’s gotten shafted in some respect.

If Boras and Correa don’t go for that, though, the Mets could counter by simply cutting down the term of the contract. Instead of 12 years that would keep Correa in Queens until he is 40, they could pursue a deal that’s seven to nine years instead that would be near the $26.2 average annual value the current contract proposal carries.