Twins shortstop Carlos Correa returns to Houston for ALDS

HOUSTON – Carlos Correa, whose off-season home is less than a half-hour drive from Minute Maid Park, went to dinner as he waited for his family's flight Thursday night. The former World Series hero for the Astros was recognized, of course, but he was surprised by Houstonians' reaction.

"Astros fans were wishing me good luck," the Twins shortstop said. "I'm like, 'Are you sure you want to wish me good luck?' "

At breakfast Friday morning, the same thing: nothing but support. "Obviously, the fans still appreciate everything I did for this city. They love me and my family, which always feels great," Correa said. "Yeah, I'm appreciative of the good-luck charms they're sending my way."

The Twins are appreciative, too, that Houston sent Correa their way — or at least allowed him to find his way to Minnesota.

Eventually. Sort of. It's complicated.

"The way it happened, it makes you think it was meant to be," Correa said last spring about his improbable route — two of them, actually — to becoming the Twins' everyday shortstop. Free agency, an MLB lockout and a sudden flurry of teams signing other players wound up forcing Correa to sign on for one season with the Twins, and a couple of suitors backing out of agreed-to deals last winter sent him back to Minnesota, this time to stay a while.

"The Twins made it clear how much they wanted me, and it means a lot," said Correa, 29.

"I'm a Minnesota Twin. I couldn't be happier to be with this great organization," Correa declared Friday. "I'm ready to represent them and go win a championship for them."

He figures it's possible, because this weekend he'll be standing on the same plot of land where he helped the Astros win their first in 2017, where he gobbled up ground balls in the World Series in 2019 and 2021. This time, he's trying to thwart the championship aspirations, the dynasty-cementing dreams, of his old friends.

It's probably not a coincidence, then, that he sees signs of his brilliant past in the teammates who will make up his ambitious future.

"In '15, [when] I made my debut, there was a veteran presence already — [José] Altuve, Marwin [González]. [George] Springer was in his second year," Correa recalled. "And you can compare those guys to Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner, Eddie Julien, who is an on-base machine. And those young guys are coming up and having success right away to help the veterans, complement the team and get to where we want to be."

Can a team that was gifted a division title by lousy opposition, that finished with only 87 victories, compete with the defending World Series champions? That's exactly the doubt that Correa says he feeds on.

And Correa, who in 2023 suffered through one of the worst, most challenging regular seasons of his career — a long bout with plantar fasciitis, and a career-low .230 average — intends to be in the middle of it.

"That's his legacy now — becoming the superstar he already is and the October veteran that he is, but also helping the new guys and pushing forward from there," said reliever Griffin Jax, who had never appeared in the postseason before this year. "For a guy with his experience to be giving us advice, it helps us out a lot."

This weekend "is going to be a whole different animal for Carlos. The reputation he built here, the history he has in the playoffs alone — I can't really speak to that because I don't know about that sort of domination," said Dallas Keuchel, Correa's Astros teammate for four years. "That's just a whole other level."

If he can reach that level again, with a whole new set of eager teammates, well that would be worth $200 million, wouldn't it? The executive who decided to offer that contract believes so.

"You bring in someone like Carlos, just watch him — how he slowed the game down, how he visits the mound, the way he talks to the group. They all lean into him," pointed out Derek Falvey, the Twins' president of baseball operations. Correa's heady and athletic defensive plays may have saved both games against the Blue Jays, and he drove in the go-ahead run on Wednesday, too.