'I can sit down and ... cry ab...

FORT MYERS, Fla. — To make it to the major leagues, to stay there, to succeed there takes some sort of preternatural athleticism and disposition. Everyone at the MLB level once dreamed of being here, so it’s easy to see how they might come to believe that baseball is what they were always destined to do. When other players consider Carlos Correa, though, they take it a step further.

“He was born to lead teams to championships,” Minnesota Twins outfielder Nick Gordon offered, sitting in the dugout Wednesday while waiting for his at-bat in a live batting practice session.

That the Twins in particular believe this is evident — if not from the particular praise they heaped on Correa in his first year in Minnesota, then certainly from this past offseason. In a singularly bizarre saga, their unwavering interest in bringing him back eventually won out after two blockbuster contracts were undone by two failed physicals. A whirlwind of possibilities that spanned both coasts landed Correa back in Minnesota — he bought a house there but maintains his home in Houston for escaping the cold come winter — where he’ll be for at least the next six years.

It’s absolutely different. You see me doing the rounds. I’m trying to leave a mark everywhere, with every player, with every person in this organization. Because in order for us to become a championship-caliber organization, we got to look at each other like we're family members, right? There's nothing I wouldn't do for my son, for my brothers, for my father. And so if we look at each other like family members, and we create that bond in this clubhouse, then things are gonna change on the field. I truly believe that, and that's one of my main focuses of spring training. My first goal is just to make my teammates better and make sure everybody got along, and it felt more like a family instead of just teammates.

No, because what the MRI showed has nothing to do with what I can do with the work and my preparation. There's nothing to be done there. In my brain, there's nothing wrong. I’m going out there, I'm playing, I played for eight years with no problems. Never had any treatment that’s been documented. And every team can see that. So in my mind, there's nothing wrong.

Now, given the MRI and what we know, yeah, I will take some precautions. I won’t play tennis with my sister anymore. I won’t be playing basketball pickup games in the gym, and I would just make sure that I do that physical activity when it's necessary, and that's when I'm working out. That's when I'm playing baseball. The only way to control it was going back in time and not sliding that late [in 2014].

There will be some games played, for sure. Actually had a meeting about it today, and all those conversations came up. And in that meeting, I said, “Minor league players, it's time to speak up because you guys have been through this already for a full year. You know what works. You know what pitchers are trying to do to disrupt your timing and your focus, and you know what you're trying to do to make sure you're ready for all of that.”

And so then all the young players started speaking in the meeting, and it was supposed to be a 10-minute meeting and ended up being a 35-minute meeting because all the players were chiming in and giving their two cents on how they felt with the new rules. And that's what I want to do. I want to create a culture where the young guys and the players that come to spring training feel comfortable enough that they can speak in a meeting, and they can be themselves. I think that's how you get the best out of people.

Absolutely. No. 1, want to win a championship. That's No. 1. And No. 2, I want to get back to a .900 OPS and seven-WAR season. That's my individual, personal goals. But at the end of the day, if I'm a better player, I help the team win more games, then eventually that will lead us to the playoffs.