Carlos Correa

TODAY: Correa told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reporters that he “woke up today feeling really good….It gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.”  An official decision on his ALDS status won’t be known until he works out with the team next week, but “the way I woke up today, if the playoff started tomorrow, I’d probably be in the lineup,” Correa said.

YESTERDAY: The Astros shut down shortstop Carlos Correa for the rest of the regular season because of a back issue on Thursday. The hope then was that Correa would return for the start of the playoffs next week. That could still happen, but it doesn’t sound like a certainty at this point. Whether Correa will be ready for the American League Division Series will depend on how his back responds to workouts next week, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle writes.

“We’re going to have to see him do a lot of stuff between now and next Friday,” said general manager Jeff Luhnow, who noted it’s “hard to tell” if Correa’s back problems have worsened in the past week. Regardless, if the Astros aren’t confident in Correa’s health when the ALDS rolls around, they’ll “most likely” leave him off their roster, according to Luhnow.

The spot currently ticketed for Correa may end up going to rookie third baseman Abraham Toro, per Rome. And third baseman/AL MVP candidate Alex Bregman would perhaps handle shortstop, something he has had to do far more often than the Astros were hoping for this season. Correa’s regular season ended with just 75 games played on account of multiple injuries. The 25-year-old sat out from May 27 until July 26 with a fractured rib and then missed Aug. 20-Sept. 15 thanks to his back, which still won’t seem to heal.

The fact that the Astros will ultimately go without Correa 87 times during the regular season and possibly still finish with the majors’ best record is a testament to the overall strength of their roster. So, even if Correa’s not available come playoff time, Houston still figures to enter the proceedings with as good a chance as anyone to take home a World Series title. Obviously, though, a healthy Correa would only enhance the Astros’ odds of winning their second championship since 2017.

The Astros have shut star shortstop Carlos Correa down for the remainder of the regular season because of a back issue, Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets. The club expects Correa to be ready when its first-round playoff series begins next week, according to manager A.J. Hinch.

While this doesn’t appear to be a serious injury, it’s nonetheless alarming with the Astros headed toward the playoffs. Back problems have been an all-too-common occurrence over the past couple seasons for Correa. The 25-year-old returned just a week ago from a back injury that kept him out of action for almost a month, though he hasn’t played since last Saturday.

When Correa has been healthy enough to take the field this season, he has once again been one of the Astros’ top performers. Correa has slashed .279/.358/.568 with 21 home runs in 321 plate appearances to help the Astros to the No. 1 seed in the American League. With just a few days remaining in the regular season, Houston holds a 2 1/2-game lead over New York for homefield advantage throughout the AL playoffs.

Astros star Carlos Correa is making an unusual switch in representation, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (Twitter links). Correa has parted ways with agent Greg Genske and is now being represented by talent agency William Morris Endeavor. WME is not a baseball agency and does not even have a MLBPA-certified agent at present, although WME agent Jon Rosen is in the process of being certified by the union, Feinsand adds.

WME’s client list includes names like Bobby Flay, Rachel Ray and Al Roker, and Feinsand adds that Rosen represented both Alex Rodriguez and Matt Vasgersian in negotiating their broadcast contracts with ESPN. Jeff Passan of ESPN further reports that Rodriguez has been advising Correa on his future, which surely influenced the shift to some degree.

On the one hand, it’s not exactly a surprise to see Correa find new representation. Genske’s former Legacy Agency was acquired by Gatemore Sports & Entertainment and rebranded as GSE Worldwide last year, and several agents have broken off to start their own shops (e.g. Tidal Sports Group, VC Sports Group). Alex Bregman and Mookie Betts are among the former Legacy clients who’ve followed their representatives to those newly started agencies.

A player — particularly one of this caliber — enlisting an agency that has never worked in baseball before is obviously quite rare. In some respects, the switch is reminiscent of Robinson Cano leaving Scott Boras to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports, although Jay-Z partnered with CAA Baseball (agent-turned-Mets-GM Brodie Van Wagenen, specifically) early in that endeavor. Whether WME seeks out a similar partnership or hires an experienced baseball representative remains to be seen.

Assuming Rosen is indeed certified as a player agent by the MLBPA, he’ll immediately be thrust into a high-profile arbitration case in his first offseason on the job. Correa is earning a $5MM salary in 2019 as a first-time arbitration-eligible player and stands to receive a sizable raise on that sum in 2020.

It’d be more interesting, though, to see how Correa’s new representation approaches his looming free agency in the 2021-22 offseason. It’s certainly possible that WME could hire a more seasoned baseball agent so that his trip to the open market wouldn’t be a totally foreign experience for the company’s fledgling baseball department. More broadly looking beyond Correa, it also stands to reason that a company with WME’s considerable resources and marketing capabilities would have little difficulty in luring other MLB players to a newly created baseball department (which could, of course, serve as another means of gaining experience in free agency prior to Correa hitting the open market).

As always, the change in representation has been reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains representation information on hundreds upon hundreds of current and former players. If you see an error or omission within the database, please let us know: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Astros shortstop Carlos Correa is likely to land on the 10-day injured list after exiting last night’s game with back discomfort, manager A.J. Hinch told reporters including Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. An official decision won’t be made until later tonight, but Hinch and the Astros are “not optimistic” that the star shortstop, who isn’t available for tonight’s contest, will avoid an IL stint.

Hinch was quick to point out that the team hasn’t seen anything to indicate that Correa’s injury is a serious one, but it will likely take several days to heal fully, a time in which the Astros would prefer to carry a full bench.

While it looks as if Correa’s latest stay on the IL will be a quick one, the injury is nonetheless concerning for the Astros and Correa, who dealt with a back injury last season that cost him six weeks and bothered him into the postseason. Furthermore, it will be the second time the 24-year-old has had to go on the injured list this season, after a fractured rib forced him out of action for nearly two months this summer.

With Correa and reserve shortstop Aledmys Diaz both on the shelf, shortstop duties should fall on Jack Mayfield and Myles Straw, who is currently in the minor leagues but is a candidate to be recalled to replace the ailing Correa. Needless to say, either substitute represents a considerable offensive downgrade from the stellar Correa, who has posted a .914 OPS on the season.

When Correa has been on the diamond, he has been one of the Astros’ most productive offensive players while defending at a premium position. Unfortunately for the former first overall selection, availability has at times eluded Correa, for whom 2019 will mark the third consecutive season in which he will fail to eclipse 110 games played.

 

The Astros defeated the Tigers on Monday to improve to 80-46, but the World Series hopefuls didn’t escape unscathed. Star shortstop Carlos Correa left the game with discomfort in his back, the team announced. Manager A.J. Hinch said afterward Correa’s day-to-day, but he admitted: “I don’t like it. It’s not comfortable.” (Twitter links via Mark Berman of Fox 26).

Hinch’s trepidation stems from the fact that back issues have been a past problem for Correa, who missed over a month last summer because of them. With this year’s playoffs just around the corner, a similar absence would be cutting things awfully close for Houston. Plus, the Astros just lost fellow shortstop option Aledmys Diaz to the injured list Sunday, though they’ve passed plenty of tests without him and Correa this season. Both players have spent weeks on the IL to this point, yet the Astros still own what should be an insurmountable eight-game lead in the AL West.

Correa previously suffered a fractured rib in a massage gone wrong May 28, causing him to sit out until July 26. While the Astros managed an impressive 31-19 record during that span, it’s obvious they aren’t at the height of their considerable powers without Correa. The 24-year-old has been brilliant over 310 plate appearances this season, slashing .278/.358/.556 with 19 home runs and 2.9 fWAR.