KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The kid wore aviators, a backward hat, a short-sleeved sweatshirt, ripped jeans, a leather backpack and a cloak of indomitability. "My mind is bulletproof," he said. My mind is bulletproof. My mind is bulletproof! Who does this kid think he is?

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A superstar. That's about right. And if this were anyone else, it would come off as false bravado, the work of a poseur, traipsing in the first day of spring training and talking about greatness like it was preordained. "I always visualized this stuff coming," he said. "I think it came earlier than I expected. I was ready for it. I'm ready for it, and I'm not going to let it get to my head."

And no matter how that sounds, please understand: There is something about Carlos Correa that absolves his words of pretense. What reads as arrogance leaves his mouth in such a mellifluous fashion that it almost sounds … humble. Which is about right, too, because he is baseball's Goldilocks principle: not too much, not too little, just right. Bryce Harper is on occasion too audacious for the masses and Mike Trout generally too introverted to sell the world on himself let alone a cold-cut sandwich. Correa is a delightful in-between, and the fact that he speaks with the fluidity he does in a second language only reinforces the bet Major League Baseball is placing that he is its next golden boy.

Carlos Correa hasn't needed long to win over Astros fans. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP) More

Trout and Harper, the game's two best players, each not yet a quarter-century old, aren't the only ones, of course. Andrew McCutchen and Giancarlo Stanton and Kris Bryant and Clayton Kershaw and Chris Archer and Paul Goldschmidt all sell the game and sell it well, though considering baseball's playing demographics skew more Latin by the year, surely the sport could use a photogenic, personable, bilingual cherub with A-Rod's talent and Jeter's equanimity to fill that void.

And there you have Carlos Javier Correa, 21 years old, 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, shortstop to the core, hands soft like they'd been smoothed by a pumice stone, feet of a dancer, arm that belongs on the mound, legs that could steal 30 bases if he let them, bat that will hit 30 home runs stat, mind impervious to ammunition. Others may be crossover possibilities – his Houston Astros teammate Jose Altuve or fellow standout Puerto Rican shortstop Francisco Lindor or old standby Felix Hernandez – but Correa is smart money.

An apology here: All of this is terribly fawning, seemingly excessive for someone with fewer than 100 games in the major leagues. Only it's not just people around the Astros organization who can't get enough of Correa. Major League Baseball is praying his .279/.345/.512 Rookie of the Year-winning season was just the start. Adidas locked him up for five years and occupied most of that first day he showed up here shooting a commercial. Opponents marvel, too, at how he looked like he belonged so quickly.

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Houston took Correa first overall in the 2012 draft, and in his first full season the next year, at 18, he owned a clubhouse of 21- and 22- and 23-year-olds. The same presence that turns egotism into modesty worked its magic on a group equally impressed with his talent and charisma.

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