'It felt like he wanted to be ...

The Minnesota Twins attempted to avoid mentioning during the news conference unveiling the biggest free-agent deal in franchise history that the guy at the heart of it all had already agreed to play for two other teams this offseason. But it did come up. Carlos Correa had been a Twin for a moment (after seven years with the Houston Astros), and then he was a free agent whom the Twins urgently wanted to re-sign. They'd fallen in love with the athlete and person over the course of a single season and publicly expressed their feelings. When Correa was in Minnesota, the sentiment appeared mutual; although, money can make a lot of locations look enticing. As a result, Correa agreed to terms with the San Francisco Giants, who intended to pay him $350 million over ten years. But, for the Twins — and the tale that would be told when all was said and done — it wasn't about the team or even the conditions.

"I remember phoning him late that night and wishing him the best," Twins head of baseball operations Derek Falvey said at a press conference on Wednesday. "It was an emotional discussion. Both parties were moved by the discourse. And what I got out of that talk was how much of his heart was here, how much of himself he spent in this organization, and how much he cared about us as a group. During Wednesday's press conference, there was a running gag about Correa also acting as the Twins' deputy general manager and shortstop. It's a knowing joke predicated on comfort and familiarity, a nod to how totally he dedicated himself to bettering the organization for what cynics would say was only going to be a single season.

"I suppose that's just more of a feel thing," Falvey said of the team's continued focus on Correa this offseason, despite seemingly done transactions. "He seemed to want to be a part of this." Correa may have made a decision. If you trust players' statements, the narrative of how Carlos Correa embarked on the most roundabout free-agent voyage ever, practically crisscrossing the country just to finish up back where he began, is a pretty good one.