C4 had zero intention of staying on in the Twin Cities. He came here with every intent to rebuild his marketability as a media presence, to get his smiling face to a market with endorsement opportunities. The Bay area would work OK, but they did a dive into his medicals and found some buyers remorse. They knew they could get out of it by just playing a little chicken and counting on Boras to Boras all over the place.
But let's be real here. This isn't about winning for anyone. Carlos Correa took less than 12 hours to decide that he's no longer a shortstop? The guy who went on MLB network to talk sabermetrics has no knowledge that at 3b, he's barely top 10? I mean sure, if all 9 of your players hit like Correa, you'd be gold. Comparing at 3rd though, CC's career average WRC+ is 130 and the projections have him at 131. Solid number, that places him tied for 8th last year with Eugenio Suarez. He's a solid player, but would you be offering 320 mm over 12 years for him? Correa's win value is that he does that good to sometimes great hitting as a good to great fielding shortstop.
Obviously the Mets fans are excited for the All Star Spectacular Review that is the projected every day lineup, but Cohen didn't bring all these Big Names in to win. Hell, the overpaying is part of the product. They're there to sell jerseys, tv time and ad space. He's essentially pre-sold the 2023 season like it's a blockbuster movie. The Mets name is super hot right now and making tons of cash. That won't last, even if they win every chip for the next 10 years. But he bought a bad position that could be easily improved by the optics of winning. I would bet they make 2x that contract in the first 2 years of Correa merch and ad sales.
I suspect the FO knew this was CC's ultimate goal and put their very reasonable offer on the table. They knew he'd turn it down if his motivations were more than winning. I don't think anyone expected him to be so obvious about it.
