![]() ![]() When ESPN analyzed the preceding decade in free-agent spending in December 2019, the Twins ranked 21st in total dollars committed and 25th in largest single contract signed-in their case, Ervin Santana’s four-year, $55 million deal from 2015, which remained a free-agent record for Minnesota until Correa nearly doubled its limit. Signing a premier free agent qualifies as a new trick for the Twins. Losing a lot in the playoffs reflects better on a franchise than, say, never making the playoffs, but it’s still sufficient reason to try a fresh strategy. Take your pick: However improbable, it’s been painful. I’m not sure the Curse of Carew has caught on, but the Reverse Curse of Correa would be a fitting way to break it-especially because the Twins indirectly leveraged the Yankees’ money to make this signing happen.Įstimates of the odds of the Twins losing 18 straight playoff games have ranged from 1 in 28,000 to 1 in 262,144 to 1 in 69 billion. Decades later, Rushin facetiously suggested that the baseball gods were punishing the franchise for absconding with Carew, thereby depriving the Yankees of a 28th Hall of Famer (and perhaps a 28th championship). Carew became the greatest Twin of all time. In 2019, Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin floated a Bambino/ Billy Goat/ Colavito–esque origin story for the Twins’ futility against New York, noting that in 1964 the Twins signed a then-unknown 19-year-old Bronx baseballer named Rodney Cline Carew right under the Yankees’ noses-after a clandestine workout at Yankee Stadium, no less. If there’s another thing they’re known for, it’s losing most of those games-13, to be precise, which is also a record-to the Yankees. ![]() If there’s one thing the 21st-century Twins are known for, it’s losing 18 straight playoff games, the longest such streak in the history of North American pro sports. I mention this because the Minnesota Twins have taken a stunning and (by Twins standards) expensive step to dispel their personal thundercloud: They’ve signed MLB’s best free agent, Carlos Correa, to a three-year, $105.3 million deal. Either way, the solution to the problem is to do something different from what’s failed before-to say “Fuck you, Jobu” and change your behavior in hopes of obtaining a happier outcome. If you dwell in the realm of rationality, you probably believe that long losing streaks result solely from poor process combined with lousy luck. If you believe in sports curses, then you also probably believe that accursed teams must do something special to unhex themselves. ![]()
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