Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers should be top destinations for Carlos Correa

In a free agency class loaded with marquee shortstops, former Houston Astros standout Carlos Correa leads the pack in terms of stardom.

Many teams this winter are going to be looking for a starting shortstop, but which one is the best fit for Correa, the former overall number one pick and World Series champion?

The top two destinations for Carlos Correa are crystal clear in my view

First and foremost, if it is indeed possible, returning to the Houston Astros would be supremely beneficial to both the Astros and Correa.

For the Astros, they get to keep the guy who started it all for them. They tanked and tanked for years to get high draft picks and, once they landed that number one pick, they wasted no time in bringing Correa aboard.

From there, he became one of the league’s top shortstops and was a leader in one of the most competitive clubhouses in baseball.

As a player, his prime is still ahead of him and his ceiling has not been reached. However, what Correa showed while playing in Houston with all the controversy around him and the team post-2019 is his ability to lead. And not just lead per se, but also deflect and become the lead blocker for a group of players with baseball’s finest at their throats.

From what the fans spewed to what MLB colleagues voiced resentment over, Correa took the heat off Jose Altuve, George Springer, Yuli Gurriel, and Alex Bregman by making himself the target as his run-ins with the likes of Joe Kelly and others have proven.

Perhaps the contemporary era we’ve known as dominant Houston Astros baseball is over and Correa is destined to move on. But make no mistake, Houston is where his heart is and a return to the orange and blue just suits his legacy the best.

If it were my vote that mattered, I’d tell Correa to stay in Houston. Remain the villain. Keep building championship-caliber teams and bring home more hardware.

If he ventures off, he’s on his own. Look at George Springer lost in the fold in Toronto. Look at Jake Marisnick and Marwin Gonzalez who have fallen off the map since leaving. If you’re Correa, I think you should really consider what you’ve built in Houston and keep adding onto you’re already-stacked team.

But hey, the Astros extended Carlos a mediocre qualifying offer and, as we all know, big money is what the stars need to make these days.

If it’s not a return to Houston that’s in Correa’s future, then the only other destination that makes sense to me is Detroit. The Tigers are an up-and-coming team with a glaring hole at shortstop and a manager who’s rather familiar with Correa in AJ Hinch.

What the Tigers need right now are star players. They have young pitching in the process of coming up between Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, and others. But they severely lack big-time players who can populate a lineup.

Jeimer Candelario is a nice player who could eventually slide into a DH role once continuingly-unproductive future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera moves on.

Akil Baddoo showed flashes of being a major force in this Tigers lineup at the top of the order for years to come. They have a number one pick in Spencer Torkelson coming up through the ranks as a third base/first base hybrid player. And then they have Jonathan Schoop and Robbie Grossman who both put forth solid 2021 campaigns and hit a bunch of home runs.

But a guy like Correa is just a fantastic fit, especially if you’re Correa and you’re looking to start over and help bring another young team out of the basement of the league.

What any team who signs or re-signs Correa just needs to worry about is his health. He’s a big-bodied, 6-foot-4-inch shortstop and those don’t typically last in this league. Third base could be in Correa’s future so, in deciding to bring him aboard, one must be prepared to pay a guy who is a high-risk, high-reward player.

In my view, the Detroit Tigers are in perhaps the best position of any team to make such a commitment because they truly don’t have much else to lose.

Those are my thoughts on where Carlos Correa will end up by the 2022 season. I’d love to see him go back to Houston, but if he has to venture off on his own, Detroit is a slam dunk destination for a player like him.