Carlos Correa first became acquainted with the New York baseball scene in full when he batted .333 in the tainted 2017 ALCS for the Astros against the Yankees, the one where the home team won every game in a best-of-seven series that seemed to signal the Yankees were back after four seasons of transitioning from the veteran 2009 core to a younger core.

Instead Correa was just getting started as a notable October performer playing in the deep playoff runs the Yankees craved to experience. He played 79 postseason games with Houston and hit well in many of those. After the 2021 season, he was part of a vaunted shortstop free agent class that the Yankees did not participate in for financial and prospect reasons.

With the Yankees sitting out Correa’s free agency, he went to the Twins on a three-year, $105.3 million deal that contained an opt-out. Once he opted out, the offseason was a frenzy, which ultimately led Correa back to Minnesota.

First, he signed a 13-year, $350 million contract with the Giants. He was set to head to the standard introductory press conference until a physical issue was discovered pertaining to his ankle.

Instead of renegotiating, Correa seemed headed to the Mets on a 12-year, $315 million deal famously negotiated by owner Steve Cohen during a vacation to Hawaii. That deal never reached the point of becoming official because of the same concerns and Correa wound up back with the Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal.

While there can be all sorts of snark about how Correa had to settle for going back to a smaller market team, his presence adds a different element to a team that went 19 years without a playoff series victory and used 100 players during an 18-year playoff losing streak that contained 14 defeats against the Yankees.

The presence of a proven October performer may have even helped the Twins in a hypothetical playoff series with the Yankees. Instead, it helped the Twins get a split in Houston thanks to Correa’s dynamic performance of three hits and three RBIs on Sunday in a performance similar to what he did April 14 in New York with a homer and a go-ahead RBI single on a difficult pitch from Clay Holmes.

“We've always heard all of the sayings and things, when the lights come on and the bright lights, there are some guys, they're giants in the light, and he's one of them,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters in the interview room in Houston Sunday night. “That's what he is.

“He's always an excellent player, but when it matters most, it's like he can really take his attention and channel it and focus it and just play even better over and over again. It's not by chance. It's definitely not the lottery here. He keeps hitting right at the right time.

Correa re-signed with the Twins on Jan. 11 and nine days Minnesota acquired Pablo Lopez from the Marlins for Luis Arraez. It was a trade that worked out well for both sides since Arraez flirted with .400 in the middle of the season and won the batting title while Lopez pitched like a Cy Young contender.

“When you have a player of that caliber, you know teams are interested in him," Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said at the time. "And the only way you’re talking about a player of that caliber in a trade is if you’re acquiring a player of Pablo López's caliber. Pablo is somebody that comes incredibly highly recommended.

"What we’ve learned about him, and even just in the brief conversations we’ve had so far, this guy is a leader, this guy is a worker, this guy is a winning player all the way through."

Falvey’s statement was made about six months after the Yankees were reportedly on the verge of getting him from the Marlins at the trade deadline – the same deadline where they sent Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis for Harrison Bader. A few weeks after the deadline reports surfaced that the Yankees did not get Lopez because they were unwilling to trade Gleyber Torres and Oswald Peraza.

Hindsight can be 20-20 but if the Yankees actually made that deal, they might not have dropped $162 million over six years for Carlos Rodon, whose first year with the Yankees was a physical and performance disaster.

As for Lopez and the Twins, the latter part of Falvey’s statement rang true on Sunday.

Anyone watching saw how in command Lopez was when he threw seven shutout innings that could have even been eight if the Twins opted to extend him another few hitters. Lopez did the heavy lifting on the mound often getting ahead of hitters and never really giving the Astros a chance to mount a rally once the Twins surged ahead.

“It kind of reminded me of Gerrit Cole in 2019,” Correa said. “It felt like hitters had no chance.”

Perhaps the more notable sequences occurred when he faced Yordan Alvarez three times. Alvarez homered twice in the series opener but Lopez struck out the slugger twice and got him on a fly ball that seemed like it could be homer because of camera work on the telecast.

“He was completely locked in,” Baldelli said. “Anyone watching can see the stuff is exceptional. But I think he had tremendous feel for his pitches.”

There’s no guarantee this goes beyond this week for the Twins since the Astros are a team who has been in the ALCS for a remarkable six straight seasons. If anything it gives the Twins a template about possessing two standout postseason performers at their disposal.