KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Here he comes, straight into 2016, streaming like water out of a faucet. Carlos Correa doesn't so much step into the picture as he pours forth, with force, both on time and ahead of his time.
Here he stands, perched on the ledge of his first full season, ready to take flight and lead the Houston Astros skyward once again. Take a good look; there is an excellent chance that these are the last few moments in the baseball world before he becomes a household name.
He is a young man, 21, with the wisdom of an old man.
He is a rangy shortstop and middle-of-the-order hitter with the crossover dribble of an NBA superstar making his move toward that point where talent meets branding.
He is the sort of savior, both of his organization and of his game, whom fans and teammates alike include in their prayers.
"I might get into trouble for saying this," Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, 25, says. "But already he is one of the best shortstops I've ever played with.
"I just ask God to give him some good health. If he stays healthy, he is going to be the biggest star in baseball very soon."
So far, Correa has played in only 99 regular-season games.
Yet, you will see him this summer in the middle of things, as the Astros, the American League's version of the Chicago Cubs, look to finish their rebuild with a flourish and drive deeper into October than they did last year.
Notably, you also will see him soon in sneaker and apparel advertisements. Yes, along the path Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James once blazed, here comes Correa. He signed a five-year endorsement contract with Adidas this winter that has been described as a "huge, record-setting" deal. The campaign will be unveiled in early April. The company also signed the Chicago Cubs' Kris Bryant.
Until now, MLB mostly has been to high-profile shoe company deals what Mountain Dew is to Napa Valley.
"It really means a lot to me because Adidas only worked in basketball and now is coming strong in baseball," Correa said last month during a wide-ranging conversation with Bleacher Report. "It's because I'm a bilingual guy who wants to show that us Latin players can get things done, show the world that coming from Latin America we can learn English, we can succeed, we can play good baseball, we can do commercials, we can do all the stuff that people in America do every day.
"I want to be able to be an example for Latin guys coming up. Learn English. It's not only about baseball. It's what's outside of the sport, too, that can help you get paid. At end of the day, it's our job. We're a brand. You've got to be able to sell yourself the right way."
The right way. Correa has been studying and thinking about this concept, as he sees it, since he was a little boy in Puerto Rico idolizing the late Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. It is as if Correa's career as a major leaguer is a vocation, something he was called to, like a young man to the priesthood.
He devoured the Clemente discussions when he was in school back home. During physical education classes, in particular, he said, teachers would talk about Clemente and the impact he made in his community. In middle school, he did a report on Clemente.
"I had to go through his whole biography and give an oral speech about his life," Correa said. "It was just fun to go out and look for information and read his biography and get to know him a little better."
What shocked him was the date on which Clemente died in a plane crash, New Year's Eve 1972. That here was a guy not out ringing in the New Year, but out attempting to deliver supplies to Nicaragua after a massive earthquake ravaged that country.
"He paved the way for us Latin American players to be able to play at this level and show people we can play the game and be good at it," Correa said.
"For me, it really means a lot because if not for him, I would not be here."
For a kid who debuted last June 8 when he was just 20, this is all heady stuff. And it certainly isn't every precocious prodigy with prodigious game who could get away with some of this chutzpah without being razzed right out of the clubhouse by seen-it-all veterans.
But this kid, no matter his age, is one of those people who changes a room when he walks into it.
"He's definitely mature beyond his years," Dallas Keuchel, Correa's teammate and last year's American League Cy Young Award winner, said. "He's a younger player who younger players can look up to.
"And, as an athlete, no matter if you're the most confident player in the world, you have to have an on/off switch. He definitely has the right amount of on and off."
Said reliever Luke Gregerson: "He's geared for one thing, and that's baseball."
It is from that that everything else emanates. The first overall pick in the 2012 draft (the Minnesota Twins took outfielder Byron Buxton second), Correa reminds his manager, A.J. Hinch, and others of a young Alex Rodriguez because of his lanky build (6'4") and combination of ranginess and power at shortstop.
In those 99 games last year, Correa batted .279/.345/.512 with 22 homers, 68 RBI and 14 steals in 432 plate appearances.
He batted third for Houston last October, from the Astros' 3-0 win over New York in Yankee Stadium in last fall's AL Wild Card Game through the thrilling five-game division series with Kansas City.
"It's a lot for someone to handle," said Hinch, speaking of everything going on for a guy who just turned 21 in September. "He has an uncanny knack for focusing on baseball when he needs to. He's a special talent, but talent only gets you so far. He knows the amount of work he has to get in."
And that includes the wise-beyond-his-years idea that learning English would only increase his options.
"When I was in third grade, I told my dad I wanted to learn English because I didn't want a translator to translate for [me]," said the man who already was planning on playing big league baseball by then. "Sometimes, you say things and it doesn't come out right way through a translator.
"For me, it's very important, that what I'm telling you right now comes out the right way, the way I want to say it. If you write it, it's because I said it, not because a translator told you."
To pay for those English lessons, Correa said his dad added another construction job. He worked three jobs a day, and Correa started learning English in the fourth grade. That is a big reason why now, he said, he has "great" contracts with Topps and Adidas.
"I know how things work," Correa said. "If I want to get paid with a contract like Adidas, I've got to look clean all the time. I've got to be professional. I've got to dress well. I've got to play good and I've got to look good.
"These are all the things that make you a good brand, and people want to buy that brand. I feel like all this work with my PR guys and work I put in inside and outside ballpark has helped me get this deal.
"I want show Latin players all around the world that it can get done, these big deals that American guys are getting, because you were willing to pay the price. Sacrifice the parties to take English classes. Stuff like that. For me, that's very important."
His world is opening up rapidly. After Correa rhapsodized about Clemente upon winning the Rookie of the Year award last November, Hollywood producer and writer Thomas Tull invited the shortstop to his Los Angeles home to look over his baseball memorabilia collection and to talk.
Tull's Legendary Pictures has acquired the rights to Clemente's life story, and part of the visit last winter included an invitation to appear in a bit part of the film. Correa does not yet know which role he will play, but he is excited about the idea.
"On the field, there are many talented players in this league right now, but not all of them have been able to do what he did off the field and help people," said Correa, who purchased a home for his parents upon signing with the Astros so his father could retire. "In Puerto Rico, he would go to schools, talk to kids, make sure they knew what it takes to be successful and help others. And he'd go to Nicaragua, take food with him for the people who didn't have anything to eat. He would give clothes to the homeless people back home.
"All that stuff he did, he was involved with the community. He was seen by the community, interacted with the community, and that's pretty special. Not many players do that. Players get caught up in being famous and all this talent that God gave them, and they don't want to do anything with their community. They just want to sit back home and enjoy their money, stuff like that.
"Roberto Clemente used his money to help others, to enjoy people, to be able to make an impact on society."
Trace a line from Clemente forward, and that's why Correa holds open workouts at home in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, all winter long. Locals and visitors know he will be at the local stadium about 15 minutes outside of Ponce working on his fielding and hitting from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., five nights a week. And they show up, he said, often by the hundreds. Many of them have watched Correa grow up, having seen him play ball since he was around nine or 10 years old.
"I don't do it because I have to do it. I do it because I love to do it," said Correa, who signs autographs after these workouts until the last fan leaves happy. "I love interacting with kids and helping them out. My practices are open to the public so they can go out there and see how I work out and get ready for a season and try to get better every single day. So they can see that and apply it to themselves."
"He's a guy with huge talent who knows how to handle himself in the right way," Carlos Beltran, Yankees outfielder and a fellow Puerto Rican, said. "It's good to see at a very young age he's capable of doing both.
"Fans really love him."
At home over the winter, Correa visits schools and gives speeches. He hosts a charity golf tournament and works to find time for other charities, too.
"For me, to be able to do that is really gratifying," he said. "It's better than hitting a home run, for real. It's about helping others.
"I will never forget where I grew up, where I come from. That's why every year when the season is over, I go back home, talk to my people, bring batting gloves and bats and give them to kids whose parents can't afford that stuff. It's a poor community. That's where I still live.
"I don't need a big mansion to make me feel better. What makes me feel better is helping society, helping others. I feel like if it was only about ourselves, God would never give us a family. We would just be born from the dirt like a plant or something like that, because we only care about ourselves."
For the next six months, those whom Correa will spend the majority of his time caring about are the other men in the Houston Astros clubhouse. As Hinch's team looks to build on the surprising momentum of 2015 and deliver Houston its first World Series title, Correa will push hard, just like Clemente did, spurred on by some special moments last October that crystallized everything for him.
He was in New York during the Mets-Kansas City World Series on the night baseball presented Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen with its annual Roberto Clemente Award. Over the years, Correa has become friendly with Vera Clemente, Roberto's widow, and her children. Roberto Jr. happens to live in Houston, of all places, and he and Correa have dinner a couple of times a year.
Anyway, after the pregame Clemente award presentation, Correa retired to a Citi Field suite with the Clemente family.
There, touched by the greatness of his idol's descendants and with baseball's grandest stage in front of him, he was mesmerized.
"Every single second that went by, I was thinking about me being out there playing on that field," Correa said. "Great atmosphere, fans screaming, on their feet every time you go to hit. It is very special."
Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.
Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments