If you’ve been around baseball for any length of time, you know to put next to no stock in Spring Training numbers, good or bad. Competition levels vary widely. Pitchers -- and hitters -- test out new wrinkles.
And yet, as of just a few days ago, Carlos Correa's batting average was hovering around .100. So was his slugging percentage, because he didn’t have a single extra-base hit all spring. With a player of Correa’s ability and track record, every rational instinct says, “This means nothing.” But still, as the hitless at-bats piled up, didn’t you wonder, just a bit?
He didn’t. Unsurprisingly, he was right.
Correa surged over the final days of spring, spraying line drives, picking up a few hits and finally getting that elusive extra-base hit. He looked like himself. Just like he always knew he would.
“I don’t care at all,” he said recently about his spring numbers. “I care about the process. … Going into the season, I just want to be able to move efficiently and move in a way that I know when we play 162, it’s going to pan out. I’m probably hitting .090 or something like that, but who cares? It’s Spring Training. Same with guys that are hitting .700. You see a lot of guys that can’t hit in the season. It’s just understanding the process.”
And Correa is very pleased with this spring’s process. He received 52 plate appearances this spring, his most in any spring since 2018. That was part of a teamwide attempt to get core players more reps in spring, but it may also be specifically beneficial to Correa.
That’s because his lighter spring workloads with the Twins have been followed by uninspiring April performances. The last time he had a March/April OPS over .800 was 2021 with the Astros, another year when he had a relatively heavy spring workload (46 PA).
“For me personally, every April of my career has been [stinky],” he said. “I don’t get enough at-bats in Spring Training. The sim games and all, it’s not the same. So you just get all the rust from the offseason out in Spring Training, and just go into April with more ABs under your belt and understanding better what my approach will be and the adjustments I need to make before games actually start counting.”
On top of all that, the three-time All-Star doesn’t just feel good, he feels great. No, this isn’t a “best shape of his life” thing, but he is delighted with his physical condition. Ironically, it’s an indirect result of him feeling rather bad in recent years.
Correa’s battles with plantar fasciitis have led him to work extensively to strengthen and loosen his entire lower body in hopes of preventing the painful condition from coming back. As a consequence of all that work, he feels he has a better foundation for hitting than he’s had in recent memory.
“I’ve noticed that my whole body feels better,” he said. “Not just my foot. It’s my whole body.”
Of course, even with all this, there’s no guarantee he goes out and raps three hits on Opening Day. This sport is hard, and you can prepare exhaustively and not succeed. But don’t pay attention to the numbers. As far as Correa is concerned, he had a successful spring. Bring on the season.
Matthew Leach covers the Twins for MLB.com. He previously covered the Cardinals from 2002-2011.
