Correa To LA? Nonsensical Some Say
Today, one of our authors walks through their reasoning on why bringing Carlos Correa to the Dodgers isn't a smart move.
IBWAA members love to write about baseball. So much so, we've decided to create our own newsletter about it! Subscribe to Here's the Pitch to expand your love of baseball, discover new voices, and support independent writing. Original content six days a week, straight to your inbox and straight from the hearts of baseball fans.
Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . Last week, Minor League Baseball announced the 2021 Golden Bobblehead award winners for top promotional activities and events in six categories and one overall winner for the best overall promotion of 2021. The winners were as follows:
- BEST PROMOTION or EVENT and BEST OVERALL PROMOTION – Erie SeaWolves, “Wonders Night.” On Sept. 4, the SeaWolves hosted “Wonders Night” to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1996 movie That Thing You Do! The film, which was the directorial debut of Tom Hanks, featured the rise and fall of a fictional 1960s “one-hit wonder” band from Erie, Pennsylvania, The Wonders. The cast of the movie was reunited at UPMC Park, and the event also served as a fundraiser for NoticeAbility, a nonprofit organization that helps students with dyslexia find their strengths.
- BEST IN-GAME PROMOTION OR EVENT – Oklahoma City Dodgers, appearance by speed painter Revel. On July 3, the Oklahoma City Dodgers hosted world-class speed painter and performance artist Revel for a performance that fans wouldn’t soon forget. Revel painted two portraits upside down, each during a 90-second break between innings – including one of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson.
- BEST NON-GAMEDAY EVENT – St. Paul Saints, Cat Video Festival. In 2012, Kate Hill, a program associate with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, suggested the idea of a Cat Internet Video Festival as a joke. After the event drew more than 10,000 people in its first year, the event outgrew its venue and the Saints stepped in and it instantly became one of the largest non-baseball events in the history of CHS Field. Partnering with a local radio station, the Saints encouraged fans to dress up and bring out cat toys, photos of their cats and anything else that would lead to some feline fun. Upwards of 13,000 people visited to watch one hour of cat videos.
- BEST COMMUNITY EVENT – Spokane Indians, Operation Fly Together. In 2021, the Spokane Indians launched a community campaign called Operation Fly Together, in conjunction with Fairchild Air Force Base. The first-of-its-kind campaign is designed to celebrate the KC-135 tanker plane and help better the lives of the 40,000 veterans from all branches of the United States Armed Forces that have settled in the Spokane region.
- BEST DIGITAL CAMPAIGN - Myrtle Beach Pelicans, Beer Bats. The best digital activation naturally began with a tweet. On May 15, Pelicans fan @bryan_kurp tweeted a photo from his seat with a beer bat in hand. The tweet went viral, generating over one million impressions, and had fans around the globe clamoring for a Pelicans beer bat. Since the beer bats were only available at the ballpark, the club found a way to capitalize on the concessions item worldwide, as team president Ryan Moore “took the night off” and allowed fans to send him $25 to drink a beer on their behalf and be mailed a "game-used bat." While the team thought they might sell a few dozen, several hundred were ordered the first night and nearly 900 beer bats were sold overall as a result of the tweet.
- BEST SPECIALTY JERSEY – Reno Aces, Remo Srirachas. On Sept. 18 the Aces hosted “Remo Sriracha Night” at Greater Nevada Field. The event was inspired by a video from the Overly Excited Tourist that went viral locally in 2017. The team brought the Overly Excited Tourist, Ryan O’Flanagan, back to the stadium he snuck into in the video to interact with fans and be part of the in-game entertainment. The Aces created special Remo Sriracha jerseys that were worn in the game and auctioned to benefit a local charity. The 33 jerseys raised nearly $7,000 and the event garnered the Aces’ largest social media numbers of the year and provided fans with a night they won’t soon forget.
Leading Off
Toss The Correa-To-LA Rumors In The Trash
By Jeremy Dorn
It was inevitable, the plotline too juicy to ignore. After all, why report rational baseball news when there are clicks to be had, fans to inflame, and tweet wars to begin?
The “Carlos Correa to the Los Angeles Dodgers” rumors have everything: layers of drama, a promise of immense wealth, a villain-to-hero redemption arc, and an impossible moral decision for the audience to make.
But the entire production is missing one thing: logic.
From local blogs, to the LA Times, to baseball insider Jon Heyman, the current rumor du jour seems to be that the Dodgers and Astros are the only two finalists to sign Correa when (if?) the lockout ends. To an extent, that’s understandable. The Dodgers failed to re-sign homegrown shortstop Corey Seager, who inked a 10-year $325 million deal with the Rangers. And the Astros purportedly would love to have their own homegrown star back.
The issue with this rumor, though, is that Plan B for the Dodgers at shortstop is already on the roster.
Trea Turner, acquired in the blockbuster deadline deal with Max Scherzer last summer, is an elite shortstop in his own right. His offensive numbers since debuting in 2015 (the same year as Correa, who won the AL Rookie of the Year Award that season – Turner finished 2nd in the NL vote to Seager) are remarkably similar to Correa’s. His career OPS is actually higher than Correa’s, and his baserunning numbers are significantly better. But Correa is, overall, the slightly better hitter and clearly better defender. In their careers, Correa has been worth roughly 10 more wins than Turner, a not insignificant figure (stats via Baseball-Reference.com).
All that said, relying on the guy who just finished 5th in MVP voting to be your starting shortstop isn’t much of a downgrade in the shortstop department.
The Dodgers already have Turner under contract for 2022. He can slide back to his natural position after a season spent playing second base to accommodate Seager’s seniority with the Dodgers. He will hit at the top of the order somewhere and, barring injury, produce at a high rate for the team next season.
After next season, the picture blurs. If the Dodgers are willing to offer hundreds of millions of dollars to a young shortstop over several years, why would they make that investment in Correa and not Turner? They have “exclusive” negotiating rights with Turner until he becomes a free agent. But, if either side is hesitant to make that long-term extension a reality, a pursuit of a replacement now makes more sense.
Additionally, there is no direct heir to the Seager throne in the Dodgers’ system. Their best shortstop prospect, 23-year-old Jacob Amaya, is very talented and nearly Major League-ready, but he will likely never progress to Correa’s level on either side of the ball. Nobody in the system has the pedigree Seager or Correa had coming up. And, even if they did, there’s never a guarantee that a top prospect will blossom into the excellent major league players they have become (see: Lux, Gavin).
So, the right move is for the Dodgers to explore a shortstop upgrade after 2022 either via free agency, trade, or extension with Turner. Other notable free agent shortstops include:
Xander Bogaerts (opt-out after 2022)
Tim Anderson (club option after 2022, unlikely to be a free agent)
Dansby Swanson (free agent after 2022)
Trevor Story (current free agent)
Correa
If the Dodgers are dead-set on a long-term upgrade at shortstop now and don’t believe Turner is the answer, they can pursue either Story or Correa and slot Turner back to second base for 2022. Every player listed above is in the 27-29 age range, with Correa being the youngest. If that extra year of age is important to the Dodgers, so be it, but I can’t imagine they’d sign Correa for that reason alone – or for his incrementally better offensive numbers.
No, if the Dodgers really want Correa, they will do it because they believe 2021 was just a preview of what Correa can do at his peak. They would do it because they believe Correa, over the next 8-10 years, will see that discrepancy in value (and, therefore, wins) between himself and Turner multiply significantly.
He would be the best defensive shortstop they’ve employed since César Izturis in 2006. If Correa continues to see his offensive numbers grow, the next few years could be monstrous. Correa would certainly make the team better for the duration of his hypothetical contract. He also has a ridiculous playoff resume, unlike Turner - even if you scrub the 2017 postseason from his ledger.
That, of course, is the rub here: 2017.
The extent to which fan reaction, clubhouse culture, and general morality factor into a front office’s decisions are largely unknown and likely vary by team. Last season, the Dodgers ignored all three factors to sign Trevor Bauer, and it backfired predictably and spectacularly. Correa, though for very different (and not nearly as disturbing) reasons, is a unique pariah among Dodgers fans.
In 2017, Correa’s Astros cheated and won the World Series. That is a fact.
Their final victims were the Dodgers, who lost that World Series in a heartbreaking fashion. Players, in exchange for their private testimony, were offered immunity. So, even though we know Correa and his teammates cheated to defeat a legendary Dodgers team at the apex of what was then a 29-year climb back to the top of the sport, they have been “cleared” by MLB in that investigation.
In the court of public opinion, however, Correa remains guilty. Especially with Dodgers fans.
He has done himself no favors in the time since the investigation took place, picking fights with former Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly on the field and with Cody Bellinger through the media in 2020. He has relentlessly campaigned for the collective moving-on of baseball fans and shamelessly defended that 2017 team. His apologies have been drowned out by a torrent of excuses, and he continues to insist the Astros are the real victims for having to endure countless taunts and boos on the road ever since.
(Even his preachy, long-winded initial apology was chock full of hypocritical soundbites, direct attacks on the Commissioner’s report, and implications that players speaking their minds is a worse offense than cheating to win a championship. In it, Correa walked through the 2017 World Series games attempting to explain away the scandal and put the onus on the Dodgers for not protecting their signs.)
While one may argue that Correa is now reaping what he sowed, others may see his efforts to take the brunt of the vitriol for that team’s deceit as some form of twisted leadership. Some may even think that would be a good trait to inject into the Dodgers’ locker room and that, in combination with his raw talent, signing Correa would net out positively for the franchise.
And that’s one of the most infuriating things for opposing players and fans impacted by the 2017 Astros: Correa IS a good player. Pre-scandal, any team would have loved to have an uber-talented two-way player with high energy, leadership abilities, and a flair for producing in dramatic moments.
Now, the scandal is something that has to be taken into consideration. The attitude has to be checked. Correa demanded respect loudly and reveled in the “H-Town versus everybody” mantra proudly after the Commissioner’s report was produced, even while admitting the team had to “own” what they’d done.
So, yeah. Correa comes across about as authentic as a Santa in a shopping mall.
And, as the Dodgers found out the hard way last season when they signed Trevor Bauer, the best business move isn’t always the best baseball move. How do you incorporate a player – no matter how talented – into a locker room full of guys who were personally affected by his actions?
How do you bring the club’s popular ambassador, Andre Ethier, to Dodger Stadium and ask him to shake hands with the poster boy for a team that stole his best chance at a ring? How do you re-sign Clayton Kershaw or Kenley Jansen and tell them to make nice with a hitter who illegitimately contributed to the shredding of their postseason legacies? How do you ask Bellinger, Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, and Austin Barnes to let bygones be bygones just two years after they learned they’d been cheated out of glory?
How do you ask the loyal fan base, still raw from the Bauer debacle, to accept and cheer for another player of immense talent but poor character?
The answer is simple: you don’t.
The Dodgers have a shortstop. He’s a very good shortstop. And they have more financial capability than any other team to make sure that position is filled with a quality player beyond 2022. Even if Correa is a great player, the ramifications of making a massive multi-year investment in him are illogical, especially given all the emotional baggage that comes with him.
Like pressing on a bruise, doom-printing rumor clickbait about Correa signing with the Dodgers is a form of good pain. It only serves to remind you that you are bruised – pointless beyond inflicting a cringey rage.
The Dodgers don’t need Correa. And they will leave the bidding war to the Astros, Yankees, and others, post-lockout. Instead, they’ll just make do with last year’s NL batting champion.
A player who, by all accounts, has never needed to illegally steal signs to succeed.
Jeremy Dorn is a lifelong Dodgers fan now residing in Asheville, NC. He is a former MLB Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and FanRag Sports, and currently maintains two personal baseball blogs (Born on the By You and Bum Baseball) and is co-host of the Bros, Balls & Bourbon podcast. You can find him on Twitter at @Jamblinman.