Houston Astros Made Right Call Allowing Homegrown Star to Leave in Free Agency

The Houston Astros had an incredibly difficult decision to make following the 2021 MLB season.

Their homegrown star shortstop, Carlos Correa, was set to hit free agency after a career year that was capped off with another productive postseason run.

He made the American League All-Star team for the second time in 2021, while also winning a Silver Slugger Award and finishing in fifth place in the AL MVP voting.

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All the accolades were warranted with Correa producing an AL-best 7.3 bWAR. He had a slash line of .279/.366/.485 in the regular season with 26 home runs, 34 doubles, one triple and 92 RBI, culminating in an impressive 131 OPS+.

Having to figure out whether or not to retain him long-term was a painstaking decision, but the Astros ultimately decided on allowing him to leave, as he signed with the Minnesota Twins.

It has turned out to be the right decision for multiple reasons.

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Chief among them is that they had a prospect ready to take over as the everyday shortstop in Jeremy Pena.

He had a monster rookie campaign in 2022, winning the ALCS MVP and World Series MVP Awards en route to helping Houston win the championship.

This year, Pena has taken his game to another level. He looks like he will earn his first AL All-Star Team appearance with his offensive production skyrocketing as he knocks on the door of his prime at 27 years old.

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For one year, in 2022, it looked as if the Astros could come to regret losing Correa, as he produced a 5.3 bWAR campaign.

But, the injury concerns that several franchises had, have turned out to be legitimate.

Correa hasn’t come close to replicating the production he had in 2022, which makes his contract one of the most cringy in the MLB in the opinion of Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report.

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Owed $133.8 million through 2028, there are vesting options that could push those earnings up to $203.3 million through 2032.

“After two-and-a-half years of the deal, though, he still hasn't provided the Twins with as much bWAR (5.1) as he did in 2022 alone (5.3), and it always was the latter years of any sort of long-term deal that teams were worried about with Correa.

"It's already a cringy contract, and there's fear it could get rapidly worse—fear that could maybe be contributing to the Pohlad family's inability to sell the team this past offseason?” Miller wrote.

The Twins doubling down on committing to Correa was certainly an eye-opener and something that has had a major impact on the franchise, but not for positive reasons.

Meanwhile, Houston has another emerging star at shortstop, one they are going to do their best to retain long-term and lock into a deal as he enters his prime.

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