The Minnesota Twins' unloading of the $50 million remaining on Josh Donaldson's contract earlier this week makes a lot more sense now, with the unexpected news that the team has agreed to terms with free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa on a three-year, $105.3 million deal.
Correa, considered by many the top name on the free-agent market in both fantasy baseball and the real world, will immediately take over as the Twins' shortstop, returning Jorge Polanco to second base while locking in Gio Urshela, who was acquired in the Donaldson deal, at third base. Luis Arraez, who was set to start at second base, will return to the utility role he occupied previously, seeing time between second and third base and in left field most prominently.
With Correa on board and Urshela at third base, the Twins aren't really in much different shape defensively than they were in 2021 with Andrelton Simmons and Donaldson handling those positions. Correa is the American League's defending Platinum Glove Award winner (a prize that goes to the league's overall top defender), and Urshela, whose defensive metrics have been a subject of much debate, is still well regarded in the field. There's no reason to alter your expectations from Twins pitchers.
Correa's bat, however, gives the Twins a best-case scenario that definitively upgrades their offense. Sure, he has had his own share of injury issues -- something that has also been an issue for Donaldson -- but he's also a prime-age 27 with a greater likelihood of repeating or potentially exceeding his 2021 production, not to mention he played a solid 206 of 222 games over the past two seasons combined. If there's anything not to like about Correa's installation into the heart of the Twins' lineup, it's that they're now counting on two prime-age, "scouts loved them" players in him and Byron Buxton, meaning that any ill-timed, coinciding injured list stints for either could significantly and adversely impact the Twins' offensive production (meaning runs, RBIs and times through the order).
From a ballpark perspective, Correa shouldn't suffer much, as Minnesota's Target Field might be a slightly more pitching-oriented venue than Houston's Minute Maid Park, but both ballparks have seen enough year-over-year fluctuation in those metrics that they should be regarded as neutral and a minimal change. If anything, leaving Minute Maid Park is only problematic in that it's excellent for right-handed pull power hitters, and Correa has had some seasons in which he was pull-conscious (49.0% of balls in play, 2020; 39.0%, 2016).
The Twins might also be regarded as a weaker overall lineup than that of the Astros, but in their defense, they were the game's second-highest-scoring lineup just three seasons ago, with four of their regulars from that campaign still around to join Correa, Gary Sanchez, Alex Kirilloff, Urshela and Arraez -- all of whom should be able to contribute decent production.
Accordingly, I'm not moving Correa far in my rankings. He remains my No. 8 points-league shortstop and merely suffers a 10-spot drop in the overall rankings to No. 68, largely because of some of the movement of the names previously behind him (Nick Castellanos, most notably).
For the Astros, incidentally, Correa's departure leaves the team with two likely solutions at shortstop. Either they will sign fellow free agent Trevor Story (still a possibility as of this writing), or they'll hand the position over to top prospect Jeremy Pena, who got a big endorsement for the job from manager Dusty Baker this past week. Pena is more of a "speed and defense" type of fantasy prospect at this early stage of his career, meaning he's more of a fit as a rotisserie middle infielder for redraft purposes. He took a big step backward in terms of plate discipline in Triple-A ball last year (4.5% walk and 26.3% strikeout rates) that caused his batting average to drop to .287.
Pena rises to my No. 36 points-league shortstop with the news, and that's probably where he will stay if Story ends up landing elsewhere. If Story does sign with the Astros, of course, then Pena will drop outside my top 50 at the position.