Carlos Correa’s return to LA reminds Dodgers they made the right move avoiding him

Much has been made of the Los Angeles Dodgers' moves (or lack thereof) this past offseason. Normally, the Dodgers are in the thick of basically every free agent and trade target out there, but instead LA saw multiple high-profile guys leave in free agency, including Trea Turner, and they did very little to replenish the losses.

However, it's looking more and more like one of the moves they didn't make is shaping up to be a win. The Dodgers avoiding shortstop Carlos Correa, who eventually signed with the Minnesota Twins, might've been the best move they didn't make.

The Dodgers and Carlos Correa seemed like a good fit at the time

With Turner heading to the Phillies on an 11-year mega deal, there were a lot of reasons to think that the Dodgers could be a player for Correa's services. Correa was arguably the top shortstop on the free agent market and, while he was going to be expensive, the Dodgers have never been shy about spending money on guys that they think will help the team.

In fairness, Gavin Lux existed and wasn't hurt when Correa's free agency was going down, but we doubt you would find many who thought that Correa wouldn't be a significant upgrade over him. It was curious, then, that despite a surface-level fit, the Dodgers never felt like real players for Correa. Sure, the team was probably looking at their payroll and wanted to reset the luxury tax threshold (or so we thought), but Correa was an obvious fit. Then again, the Dodgers avoided many others that seemed like logical matches.

Correa's medicals, slow start are making the Dodgers look like geniuses

And then we come to all of the drama that was Correa's free agency. It looked like a division rival, the Giants, were going to ink Correa to a $350 million contract, but what followed was a series of physicals that not only scuttled that deal, but would nix a smaller (but still massive) deal with the Mets. We aren't sure what Correa's scans needed to look like for multiple aggressive front offices to abandon ship, but we assume a certain amount of duct tape and Elmer's glue was involved.

Eventually, Correa would land back with the Twins on a $200 million contract, so no one should feel TOO sorry for Carlos. However, with as much smoke as there was surrounding his surgically repaired leg/ankle, this was clearly a massive risk -- one the Dodgers were shrewd to not get embroiled in.

So far, the Dodgers staying away from Correa is looking quite good. While there are not any apparent signs that Correa's leg is giving him problems, he hasn't been great in 2023. Through 166 plate appearances this season, Correa is slashing .201/.277/.396 with six homers, which is far from adequate production for a guy who was the biggest signing in Twins' franchise history.

In the end, Correa will probably be fine in the short-term because he's a very good player who has a history of producing on the field in a multitude of ways. But imagine if he was making $32 million this year and expected to replicate Turner's impact but this was the result?

Dodgers fans undoubtedly would've hated him even more.