San Francisco Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi has admitted to being left "disappointed" by his team's deal to sign superstar shortstop Carlos Correa falling apart.
The Giants had everything in place to sign the megastar free agent, and had even scheduled a press conference to announce his arrival. But then, an issue arose in his medical report, and the Giants got cold feet.
The deal was scrapped at the last minute, and Correa returned to free agency and almost immediately secured a deal with the New York Mets. Now, the Giants have spoken out about the failed deal for the first time, with Zaidi not hiding his frustrations.
“We would never come to an agreement with a player and then bring up concerns pertaining to something in the electronic medical record,” Zaidi said. “By that point, we’ve far cleared that hurdle. Anything that comes up would be based on new information that has arisen through the process.
“Any suggestion that this was an 11th-hour thing is just not accurate. As soon as we had information, we shared it." He continued: “I genuinely believe there was a good faith effort, not just by us, but by Scott and Carlos to get a deal done.
"Some of the innuendo that maybe [Correa] preferred to be somewhere else... I think while we were engaged with them, we never got any indication or suggestion that he was anything other than 100 per cent in on the idea of joining our organization.
"We’re grateful for that. It’s disappointing, but we’re also turning the page and excited about the players we have and the players we’ll continue to add. That’s got to be our focus now as the calendar turns to 2023.”
Correa's deal with the Mets is still yet to be rubber stamped and announced by the side, but Zaidi admitted it is unlikely the Giants would return to the negotiating table even if the opportunity arose.
“We’ve had some conversations since then, but our understanding is they’re focused on a deal elsewhere at this point,” Zaidi said. "So I think the chances of a deal with us at this point are pretty unlikely based on their position.”
