2 duds that the Miami Marlins were right not to sign in the offseason

1. The SS the Miami Marlins could’ve built around

It’s no secret that SS Carlos Correa was an elite free agent during the last offseason. He seemed like a natural target for the Miami Marlins, as the incumbent Miguel Rojas just wasn’t really cutting it as a starter at the position. Correa was phenomenal last season with a .279/.366/.485 batting line and more importantly an elite defense that led to an impressive 7.2 WAR.

It certainly looked as if some team was going to give Carlos Correa a massive contract. I mean an elite defensive short stop with power who was only 27 years old?! That looked like a general manager’s dream signing. A 10 year deal for a player like that is still only taking him through to his age-37 season. How could anything really go wrong here?  Well imagine everyone’s surprise when he had to “settle” for a 3 year/$105 million deal with the Minnesota Twins?! The deal even has opt-outs after every season.

It became clear that something was seriously wrong with the signing. Why couldn’t Carlos Correa get the massive contract that he was expected to get? What was wrong? It appeared that his serious injury history played a part in the contract and then there were likely other factors, such as likely negative evaluations by other teams.

What am I talking about? Well he’s only batting .279/.344/.407 right now which isn’t really worth the salary that he was commanding. He has 3 home runs and 16 RBI in 35 games and 140 AB’s, so he’s been having more health problems and his power isn’t there, despite an identical batting average. He has a 1.1 WAR for the season so far, which isn’t bad but FanGraphs projects only a 2.7 WAR going forward. That’s good, but not worth the money. He also has a .360 BABIP and is expected to hit worse going forward. Was he worth $35 million a year?

The Miami Marlins were right to pass up on signing Kyle Schwarber and Carlos Correa. It ended up having the team avoid bad investments and limiting our futureexpenses. The best part is that if Correa actually bounces back to last season’s results, he’s a free agent again after this season.