Charley Walters: Twins owner Jim Pohlad would love to re-sign Carlos Correa
Jim Pohlad is emphatic in his desire to have Carlos Correa back.
“I’m totally on board with him coming back,” the Minnesota Twins’ owner said Thursday of the pending free agent shortstop. “Definitely. Absolutely. I love the guy. He’s a huge asset and benefit to the team. But I don’t know how it’s going to go.”
Correa, 28, intends to opt out of the remaining two years of his $105.3 million, three-year contract five days after the World Series. Correa left the Houston Astros last spring after seeking a deal believed to be in the $300 million-range over 10 seasons.
“It probably didn’t work out exactly for him the way he wanted it to last year,” Pohlad said. “So maybe it will this year, I don’t know.”
Correa is still seeking more long-term security.
How much will that cost?
“That’s the issue,” Pohlad said. “He’s got an aggressive agent (powerbroker Scott Boras), and they’re going to test the market, and I don’t know what it’s going to yield for them. It’s really too early to tell.”
— An educated estimate is that retaining Correa could cost $210 million or so over seven seasons. Meanwhile, don’t be surprised if the fast-rising Mariners, eager to contend for a World Series berth, become a top bidder for Correa. One benefit for Seattle is that Washington does not tax personal income. That could be a savings for Correa of $12 million to $15 million over a seven-year deal. Minnesota’s top-earner state tax is 9.85 percent.
— Each of the five teams the Vikings have defeated in their first six games have losing records. Their next two opponents, Arizona and Washington, also have losing records. It’s not unreasonable to think the Vikings could be 7-1 heading into a big showdown against the Bills (5-1 hosting the Packers on Sunday) on Nov. 13 in Buffalo.
— With 11 regular season games left, the Vikings, who before the season were projected to win nine games by NFL Network, already have won five. The Packers, projected to win 10 games, have won three games.
— The Vikings’ U.S. Bank Stadium is tied for the seventh-cheapest beer in the NFL at 50 cents per ounce, per a study by olbg.com. The Packers’ Lambeau Field charges 59 cents per ounce, ranking 18th.
— Glen Taylor last year agreed to sell the Timberwolves and Lynx for $1.5 billion. In the new Forbes NBA valuations, the Wolves are worth $1.65 billion.
— Somebody needs to notify the Gophers football team that school colors are maroon and gold, not black as they wore on Saturday against Rutgers.
— Bert Blyleven will return as pitching coach for a fourth time for his homeland Netherlands team in the World Baseball Classic in March. The hall of fame former Twin will fly to Curacao this week to work with prospects. The Netherlands will play Cuba in the WBC’s first game March 7 in Taiwan.
Blyleven, 71, possessed baseball’s best curveball during a 22-year career, but he will emphasize control of the fastball for his young Dutch pitchers.
“I give them the Ted Williams hitting chart,” he said last week. “Williams figured that with pitches thrown down and away, you would hit .230, .240, .250. Home plate is 17 inches across. I put a towel over the plate adding three inches to each side and have my catcher sit down and away.
“How many pitches out of 10 can you throw down and away just off the plate? You should be able to do it about six out of 10 times. But most kids today are lucky if they can do it four times. The focus is down and away. That little white towel gets them focused on that area. If you miss, don’t miss over the plate.”
Blyleven doesn’t believe in pitching analytics.
“I’m not going to say you have to throw a 3-1 breaking ball — let them pitch, let them learn,” he said.
— That was Gophers senior golfer Antoine Sale, who is from France, shooting a Woodhill Country Club course record 11-under-par 60 the other day. The previous record was 64. Arnold Palmer, by the way, set a Woodhill record with a 65 in 1957.
— Daniel Oturu, 23, the former Cretin-Derham Hall and Gophers basketball star who received a guaranteed $2.9 million contract from the Los Angeles Clippers two years ago, has opted not to play overseas this season to return to the NBA G League with Chicago’s Windy City Bulls for $85,000.
— Matthew Hurt, 22, the 6-foot-9 former Atlantic Coast Conference scoring leader at Duke from Rochester John Marshall, is in training camp with the G League Memphis Hustle.
— Theo John, the 6-9 Champlin Park grad who starred at Marquette, was chosen 16th overall by Capital City (Washington, D.C.) in last week’s NBA G League draft.
— Former East Ridge star Kendall Brown has made the Indiana Pacers’ final roster but with a two-way contract, meaning he’ll spend most of this season at G League Fort Wayne.
— Speaking of the Pacers, Mark Boyle, son of former Ch. 11 sportscaster Joe Boyle, has begun his 35th season as Indiana’s esteemed broadcast voice and will work his 3,000 NBA game in January.
— Hard to believe it has been 45 years since Gophers running back Kent Kitzmann rushed for 266 yards in a 21-0 victory over Illinois. Also that 1977 season, under coach Cal Stoll, Minnesota shut out No. 1-ranked Michigan 16-0 and beat UCLA 27-13.
— On Sunday, former Minneapolis Laker George Mikan’s No. 99 jersey will be retired by the Los Angeles Lakers at their Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers have invited a dozen of Mikan’s family and friends to attend. George died in 2005 at age 80 from kidney failure in Scottsdale, Ariz.
— Tony Jaros Jr., whose late father played with Mikan with the Lakers for three seasons, died unexpectedly at age 79 last weekend.
— Pat Eilers, the former St. Thomas Academy, Notre Dame and Vikings defensive back, and wife Jana, a University of St. Thomas grad, have made a $5 million gift to Notre Dame’s sports performance program.
— Former Gophers men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino’s New Mexico team is projected to finish fifth in the Mountain West this season. Richard, in his second season at New Mexico, will host his father Rick’s Iona team on Dec. 18.
— Brian Dutcher, 62, son of former Gophers coach Jim Dutcher, and his San Diego State team are predicted to win the Mountain West.
— Ex-Gophers men’s basketball coach Dan Monson, in his 16th season at Long Beach State, has his team projected for a third-place finish in the Big West.
— The Gophers, with Dennis Evans and Cameron Christie committed, rank 30th in 2023 men’s basketball recruiting by 247sports.com, and seventh in the Big Ten behind Michigan State, Ohio State, Maryland, Penn State, Illinois and Indiana, but ahead of Wisconsin, which is eighth.
— The National League champion Philadelphia Phillies have plenty of World Series influence from former Twins executives Terry Ryan and Andy MacPhail and Charlie Manuel, who managed them to the 2008 championship and is a consultant.
— Happy birthday: Jim “Hurricane” Carter, the tough former Gophers football captain and Pro Bowl Green Bay Packer from South St. Paul, turned 74 the other day.
— Ex-Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, 36, who lives in Edina, made his retirement from hockey official on Saturday.
— Not only is Bill Lechner in the Minnesota Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, but the Hill-Murray hockey coach recently was inducted into the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame with Tartan’s Steve Romanchuk.
— Inducted into the St. Paul Central 102nd “C” Club on Tuesday at Ideal Hall will be Ashley Ellis, Adam Hunkins, Angelique Robinson, Dave Vogel and Phil Taconita.
— Late NFL referees Jerry Seeman from Blaine and Ron Gibbs, a St. Thomas College alumnus, have been promoted for Pro Football Hall of Fame election by the “Football Zebras” national blog.
— Eagan’s Tom Barnes, who was an on-field official in two Super Bowls, evaluates officials for the Big Ten and critiqued the Minnesota-Penn State game.
— Retired Dakota County chief justice Dick Spicer just completed his 30th season of refereeing high school football.
— Twins minor league second baseman Edouard Julien is hitting .421 with four homers in the advanced Arizona Fall League.
Don’t print that
— The NFL trade deadline is Tuesday. A deal, although unlikely, would indicate a change in philosophy by the new Vikings front office.
There’s been buzz that the Vikings have been trying to acquire either a fast tight end or fast wide receiver to stretch the field.
Reasons: Beyond young wideout Justin Jefferson (23), the team has Adam Thielen (32), and although Thielen’s still an effective possession receiver, he hasn’t had the separation with defenders he once had. K.J. Osborn (25) is fine, not great. Tight end Irv Smith (24) has been disappointing. A faster tight end would open the field more for Jefferson.
But the Vikings already have traded their fourth-, sixth- and seventh-round picks in April’s draft, although they still could get a couple of sixth-round compensatory picks.
Before the season, new Vikings management hinted that its team building strategy was not to jump all in right away, but to construct the team for the long term. If the Vikings were to make a trade now, it would signal that they’re serious about the Super Bowl this season.
— Aside from the Eagles, who smoked the Vikings 24-7 six weeks ago, the Arizona Cardinals’ offense the Vikings face at noon Sunday will be the best offense they’ve faced this season.
— Jefferson gets a full-page spread in this week’s Sports Illustrated, referencing his ability to leave defensive backs “in the dust.” SI also predicts an eighth-place finish for the Timberwolves in the NBA’s Western Conference.
— Considering the highly active NCAA transfer portal and potential name, image and likeness deals (NIL), don’t think there won’t be suitors for recent Gophers 7-1 basketball commitment Dennis Evans from California if he excels during his freshman season next year.
— It looks like the Vikings’ next International game will be in Canada — perhaps Winnipeg — in 2024.
— Shocker: Vikings QB Kirk Cousins is 25-1 odds to be the NFL’s Most Valuable Player this season, per BetOnline.ag. Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers is 100-1.
The Vikings are 16-1 to win the Super Bowl, the Packers 35-1.
— Ex-Twin Eduardo Escobar’s 69 runs batted in for the New York Mets this season would have led the Twins, and his 20 home runs would have been third-highest on the Twins. The Twins traded Escobar, who was to become a free agent in 2019, to Arizona for Jhoan Duran, Gabriel Maciel and Ernie De La Trinidad.
— Emilio Pagan this season led the Twins with nine saves. Meanwhile, ex-Twins relievers: Taylor Rogers had 31 saves for the Padres and Brewers; Liam Hendricks had 37 saves for the White Sox, and Ryan Pressly had 33 saves for the Astros, plus four more in the playoffs.
— Former Gophers running backs who left via the NCAA transfer portal: Bucky Irving, who rushed for 699 yards for Minnesota last season, has rushed for 536 yards for Oregon this season; Ky Thomas, Minnesota’s top rusher last year with 824 yards, has just 62 yards for Kansas, and Cam Wiley has 209 yards for Akron.
— The Gophers still have Northwestern (Nov. 12) and Iowa (Nov. 19) on their football schedule. The over/under betting line for Saturday’s Northwestern-Iowa game was 31.5 points, which might be the lowest over/under for any college game in history, per Disaffected Musings.
— Word is the 14-school Big Ten, which has USC and UCLA joining in 2024, remains in pursuit of four of five others: Stanford, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina and Notre Dame. Oregon is important because of Nike ties. Notre Dame could increase each school’s annual revenue from the Big Ten Network from nearly $100 million to maybe $120 million. The Irish, however, are said to be dawdling.
— Despite missing this entire rookie season with the Oklahoma City Thunder after foot surgery, Minnehaha Academy grad Chet Holmgren has a new shoe endorsement deal with Nike. Blake grad David Roddy of the Memphis Grizzlies has also signed with Nike.
— There’s whispering lately that a local business group is interested in buying StoneRidge Golf Club in Stillwater — price tag rumored at $8 million — and transforming it into a casino.
— The University of St. Thomas men’s basketball team will finish eighth in the 10-team Summit League, via the league’s preseason poll.
— New varsity baseball coach at Cretin-Derham Hall, on a one-year basis, will be popular alum Leonard “Buzz” Hannahan.
— Considering the University of St. Thomas’ ambitious athletics facilities plans with its move from Division III to Division I, some prominent alumni are still wondering from where the finances will come.
— The most wagered college football game in the nation last week was the Gophers at Penn State, with 76 percent of bettors picking the Nittany Lions despite their 5.5 point spread, per BetOnline.ag. Penn State won 45-17.
Overheard
— Twins owner Jim Pohlad, on pending free agent Carlos Correa: “He’s a great person and a great person in the clubhouse — that stuff’s all been said before — but it’s true. It really is.”
