From start to finish, Carlos Correa’s time in Minnesota was a strange odyssey — one that, it turns out, nearly ended in tragedy.
In a recent interview with MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart, Correa recounted a harrowing moment on Lake Minnetonka last July, when he found himself “fighting for survival.” During a family outing, he drifted far from both the boat and the shore, exhausted and struggling to stay afloat while carrying his 3-year-old son, Kylo.
Correa wasn’t wearing a life jacket. Spotting a nearby buoy, he made for it, believing it was his only chance. Kylo, safely strapped into a life vest, sat on his shoulders, asking if they were going to be okay.
Correa reached the buoy but slipped. He went under, grabbed the chain, and injured his left hand. With his son still on his shoulders, he alternated hands just to stay above water, shouting toward the boat for help.
It was, by his account, his last gasp.
His father-in-law eventually spotted him and swam out with a life jacket. Correa and his son made it out safely. As McTaggart notes, the experience sparked a religious reawakening, leading Correa to organize regular Bible study sessions during the offseason.
I get that a lot of Twins fans are down on Correa. But, it’s difficult to hear a story like that and not feel a jolt of empathy. A situation like that — legitimately fearing for your life, trying to suppress panic while your child looks to you for reassurance — can leave lingering echoes of trauma. I know numerous people who’ve witnessed drowning incidents or had close calls themselves, and it haunts them.
The exact date of the incident isn’t specified, but Correa was traded back to Houston two weeks later, suggesting it occurred around the All-Star break. He was in the lineup for the first game of the second half, showing no outward signs of what he’d just endured. You never really know what someone is dealing with.
It’s quite the bookend to Correa’s turbulent tenure in Minnesota. He arrived as a jilted free agent and experienced dramatic highs and lows over three and a half seasons. Injuries, including plantar fasciitis in both feet, disrupted his availability and hampered his performance. In 2024, that issue cut short an All-Star-caliber campaign and coincided with a team-wide collapse that carried through to 2025.
I’m also not going to pretend everything was out of his control. Last season, Correa was healthy but repeatedly came up short in big moments, a stark contrast to his reputation. At times, he carried himself more like a hired mercenary than a foundational piece, and that perception only hardened on his way out. As McTaggart writes, “He never wanted to leave Houston in the first place.”
Still, whatever frustration lingers is outweighed by something else.
It’s disappointing that what once looked like a defining chapter for the Twins unraveled so completely. It’s disappointing that the franchise’s boldest free-agent move will be remembered more for what didn’t happen than what did.
And it’s scary to realize that, near the end of it all, things came far closer to tragedy than anyone realized.