Carlos Correa Flip Caps Debacle Of An Offseason For the Giants

The Carlos Correa Era ended before it began by the Bay. The San Francisco Giants and the All-Star shortstop parted ways before they could even put pen to paper, leaving the franchise with a ton of soul-searching to do. Correa’s flip to the New York Mets capped what has been an unmitigated disaster of an offseason for the Giants.

After the Giants and Correa agreed to a 13-year, $350 million deal last week, an introductory press conference was set for Tuesday. That was abruptly cancelled over what is being termed a disagreement over the 28-year-old’s health, stemming from something that came up during his physical. Correa and his agent Scott Boras quickly pivoted and less than 24 hours later he agreed to a 12-year, $315 million deal with the Mets. The Giants are walking away empty-handed.

San Francisco entered the offseason with money to spend, and had big dreams of landing at least one — and possibly two — stars. The franchise went all-in to land Aaron Judge but, sadly, the closest they got was Arson Judge. The Yankees were able to retain their slugger with a nine-year, $360 million deal.

The Giants were also poking around with interest in Trea Turner, but he opted to go east and join the Philadelphia Phillies. San Francisco was floundering until it finally landed a big fish with the Correa deal. Annnnd it’s gone. Now they’re left with the scraps they signed during the rest of free agency.

While Judge and Correa went elsewhere, and Carlos Rodon bolted to the Yankees, the Giants have been nibbling around the edges.

They gave Mitch Haniger a three-year, $45 million deal coming off a season with the Mariners in which he hit .246 with 11 home runs and 34 RBIs with a .736 OPS in 57 games. He dealt with back and ankle injuries throughout 2022. Haniger has been mediocre since posted a 4.8 fWAR in 2019.

San Francisco gave Sean Manaea a two-year, $25 million deal. In 2022 with the Padres, the lefty went 8-9 with a 4.96 ERA in 30 games (28 starts). Not exactly lights-out stuff. The Giants also gave Ross Stripling a two-year, $25 million deal. In 2022 he went 10-4 with a 3.01 ERA in 32 games (24 starts). But the 33-year-old only threw 134.1 innings, which happened to be a career-high. So he’s the opposite of a workhorse.

Those three signings are the only things of note the Giants have done this winter. That’s awful when you consider the Los Angeles Dodgers have ruled the division forever and are coming off a 111-win season. Meanwhile, the San Diego Padres reached the NLCS in 2022 and added this winter, picking up Xander Bogaerts, Matt Carpenter and Seth Lugo. San Francisco won 81 games in 2022 and got worse.

There will be a lot to say about this Correa debacle in the coming months. For now all anyone needs to know is that the Giants took a few big swings this offseason. They struck out every time they were up to the plate.