By the numbers, by the results, new Twin Carlos Correa is one of baseball's best

FORT MYERS, FLA. — Joe Smith knows how it looks. The free-agent reliever joined the Twins on the same day his new team lined up another deal with a former teammate of his, and his friends quickly saw a connection.

"I've gotten about 20 texts that are like, 'Oh, you're just following [Carlos] Correa,' " Smith said with a laugh on Sunday, shortly before Correa arrived at Hammond Stadium to undergo a physical exam before signing his contract. "I'm like, 'If you're going to pick a shortstop to follow, that's a pretty good one.'"

Perhaps the best in the game, in fact. Correa last season was worth 7.2 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference, more than any major league infielder except Marcus Simien. On hitting alone, he was top 10 in the American League, and he won the Platinum Glove, given to the best fielder at any position in each league, after saving an MLB-best 20 runs last season, according to Statcast.

Since Correa entered the major leagues in 2015, only Mike Trout and Mookie Betts have been more valuable AL players, as measured by bWAR.

Forget the numbers, though — Twins who have played with and against Correa are more than willing to testify to his greatness, to the impact they expect him to have on a team that went 73-89 last year. The Astros never had a losing record in his seven seasons in Houston, after all.

"He makes us better than anyone," insisted Miguel Sano. "We got the best for our [lineup] and the best for our defense."

Sano invoked the Astros' 2-0 sweep of the Twins at Target Field in the 2020 playoffs as a demonstration of Correa's winning ways.

"Every time, he hits the ball hard," Sano said of Correa, who went 3-for-6 with two walks and a home run in the two games, and made crucial contributions to both. In Game 1, Correa singled in the ninth inning of a tie game to help ignite Houston's three-run rally, and in Game 2, he broke a 1-1 fifth-inning tie with a two-out, solo home run to center, giving the Astros a lead they never surrendered.

"He's a winning guy," Sano said. "Now he can win with us."

Well, it will have to happen fast. Correa's new contract covers the 2022, '23 and '24 seasons, at $35.1 million per year. But neither the Twins nor Correa expect him to fulfill the last two years of the deal; Correa, whose contract includes opt-outs each October, is simply resetting the market in order to pursue a much longer, much richer deal next winter, something along the lines of the $325 million, 10-year contract Texas gave to Corey Seager.

With another MVP-caliber season like 2021 — Correa finished fifth in the actual AL voting — plus fewer shortstops on the market and no lockout to freeze teams in place, Correa and his agent, Scott Boras, figure to ask for a record-setting contract seven months from now. Perhaps the Twins will be persuaded to meet his price — but that's territory with which they are historically unfamiliar.

"Good for him. Everyone's got to do what's best for yourself," said Byron Buxton, who signed a guaranteed $100 million contract of his own in November. "If he's only here for one year, my mentality is, let's make it a good one."

He's got the tools for it, of course.

"Seeing him across the field, and the range he has and the arm he has — probably the best arm in the big leagues, I think, at shortstop," judged Twins pitcher Dylan Bundy, who spent the past two seasons in the AL West, as an L.A. Angel, with Correa. "So he'll be a huge help. We're going to be excited to have him."

And not just during the games, said Smith, an Astros teammate of Correa's in three different seasons.

"This guy is unbelievable. Obviously we know what he can do on the field. But in a clubhouse setting, he's a tremendous leader," Smith said. "The way he prepares, he's going to make everybody better. It doesn't matter if you're an infielder, outfielder, pitcher — the guy's baseball IQ is off the charts."