Bringing Carlos Correa Back Together With Jose Altuve Shows Jim Crane Still Puts Winning First — This Trade Is Much More Than Baseball Nostalgia

Carlos Correa is a Houston Astro again and suddenly anything seems possible for Jim Crane’s franchise again. While this trade with the Minnesota Twins to reacquire the uber leader who got away is a bigger blockbuster in Houston than anywhere else, this is no mere nostalgia play. It’s a baseball coup.

This signals to Jose Altuve and everyone else on this Houston roster that Crane is as committed as ever to giving the Astros every chance possible to win the World Series this season. As usual. There is no punting or waiting till next season with this franchise. Not with this owner. So Crane will take on nearly $60 million in salary to get Correa back, pushing the Astros over the luxury tax.

Correa may not be the player he once was in Houston, but he can still be a difference maker for these Astros. Would anyone be surprised if Correa can summon up another big playoff moment or three back in the ballpark where he once ruled October? Jim Crane and general manager Dana Brown are betting on it and most Astros fans seem to be just as pumped.

You know who’s also pumped about this trade bolt of the past becoming the present again? The Astros ticket office. This excitement is real and Carlos Correa’s return to the stadium he’s only known as Minute Maid Park will be a purchase-driving hot ticket. Who doesn’t want to see Correa declare what time it is again?

“He will give our clubhouse a charge, give the city a charge,” Dana Brown says in a post trade deadline Zoom with reporters.

In many ways, this Carlos Correa trade — even more so than the deals to land potential left-handed power bat Jesus Sanchez and Baltimore Orioles utility man Ramon Urias — is a way of paying back this Astros clubhouse for how it’s managed to build a five game lead in the American League West despite injury after injury after injury.

It’s a flex of belief. Credit Crane for realizing how much this Astros group needs that.

This is a chance for the now 30-year-0ld Correa to reinvent himself back in Houston too. To remind everyone of how baseball’s biggest stages always seem to bring out the best in him. In truth, Correa’s never been a player for the 162 as much as he’s a player for October.

You know who’s also pumped about this trade bolt of the past becoming the present again? The Astros ticket office. This excitement is real and Carlos Correa’s return to the stadium he’s only known as Minute Maid Park will be a purchase-driving hot ticket. Who doesn’t want to see Correa declare what time it is again?

Playing third base on this Astros team, next to Jeremy Peña, the young shortstop who replaced him when the Astros let him move on in free agency, Correa gets a chance to return to playing games that matter. The stats say he hasn’t been close to the hitter he used to be in Houston this season.

But now he’s back in the city that’s always brought out the best in him. Maybe you can go home again and rewrite the story.

“Getting him back to a familiar ballpark, which is a hitter-friendly ballpark, with some familiar faces, we feel like we’re going to get a boost from that,” Brown says.

It’s hard to imagine Jose Altuve not getting one. The All-Time Greatest Houston Astros Player has been as impactful as ever this season, driving more winning. Altuve is coming off a four hit game, but you can bet he’s more excited to have one of his all-time favorite teammates back. One who’s helped him lead teams and clubhouses in the past.

Jim Crane stuck up for Jose Altuve with this trade too. This owner refuses to let a real chance to win go by without trying to grab it. Altuve’s brilliance will not be in vain either.

When Crane first told local TV news legend Mark Berman that “The window’s never shut” on the Astros years ago, some took it as just a great quote, another big get for a news breaker. But that line is Jim Crane’s mission statement, his driving mantra.

Carlos Correa is back. How much must the bitter Yankees and Dodgers hate this? Who doesn’t believe the Astros can win now?

It’s Correa Time. Again.