CLEVELAND, Ohio — The New York Mets are poised to add one of the Guardians’ top bench resources from Stephen Vogt’s coaching staff.
Kai Correa, who served as major league field coordinator for the last two seasons under Vogt, will join Carlos Mendoza’s staff as bench coach according to a report by Pat Ragazzo of Sports Illustrated.
Correa was the bench coach in San Francisco from 2020-23 before joining Cleveland along with Craig Albernaz when Vogt was hired in November of 2023. He served as field coordinator and director of defense and added his voice in matters of baserunning and game strategy for the back-to-back American League Central Division champions.
With Correa serving as field coordinator and Rouglas Odor as infield coach, the Guardians finished second in the majors with 84 defensive runs saved in 2024 and were seventh in 2025 (40). Cleveland’s infield finished first in defensive efficiency at 75.8% in 2024, first in opposing batting average on ground balls at .231, and third in outs above average (OAA) with 23 last year.
Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said last week that the club expected there would be interest from other teams regarding members of Cleveland’s coaching staff. Vogt said at the time the club intended to bring back the entire staff.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the job that this group did from the beginning of the year to now,” Vogt said. “We all stuck together. We all showed up every day helping our players get better and there’s no one else I’d rather do it with.”
Antonetti said turnover is impossible to predict, but it is also a good and healthy sign for the organization.
“We have an extraordinary group of coaches that I think are really well regarded within the industry,” Antonetti said.
A Hawai’i native, Correa, 37, played at the University of Puget Sound before joining the coaching staff there and moving to the University of Northern Colorado a few years later. He joined Cleveland’s coaching staff in Arizona in 2018 before becoming the bench coach and field instructor for the Giants in 2020.
Correa was the acting manager for San Francisco at the end of the 2023 season for three games after Gabe Kapler was fired.
Both his grandfather, Jimmy Correa, and his father, Tom, were successful high school coaches in Hawai’i, and Kai played for his father at Waiakea High.
Ragazzo also reports that Jeff Albert is being promoted to lead the Mets hitting program at the major league level after serving as the franchise’s director of hitting development.
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