Cleveland Guardians assistant to take coaching role with New York Mets

The Cleveland Guardians success over the past few years has inspired several coaches to pursue other roles, and this trend continues as an assistant coach leaves the team this season.

Jun 27, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; A general view a Cleveland Guardians hat and glove on the dugout railing before a game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images | Peter Aiken-Imagn Images

The challenging aspect of the Cleveland Guardians offseason is that players and coaches are beginning to prepare for their departure.

Players still have a few weeks before they can start considering free agent deals with other teams, but coaches are beginning to secure positions on the benches of different squads.

ESPN's Jeff Passan confirmed New York Mets ON SI's Pat Ragazzo report that the Mets are bringing in former Guardians coach Kai Correa.

"The New York Mets are hiring Kai Correa as their bench coach, Passan wrote Tuesday. "Correa, bench coach and interim manager in San Francisco and an integral part of Cleveland’s coaching staff since 2024, will be Carlos Mendoza’s right-hand man."

Correa served as the Giants' bench coach from 2020 to 2023, and the team named him interim manager in the middle of his last season in San Francisco after parting ways with manager Gabe Kapler.

Source: Mets are hiring Kai Correa to be their new bench coach under Carlos Mendoza

Correa was SF Giants bench coach from 2020-2023 and most recently Cleveland’s ML Field Coordinator/Director of defense, baserunning and game strategy last 2 seasons

— Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) October 14, 2025

After the Guardians hired manager Stephen Vogt two years ago, Correa came over to be Cleveland's Major League Baseball field coordinator and director of defense, baserunning and game strategy coach.

Cleveland.com's Joe Noga stated on Tuesday that "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, via Cleveland.com “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.”

Correa might not be the only coach the Guardians could lose this offseason, with pitching coach Carl Willis still thinking about his future.

“Carl’s presence is invaluable, let alone his ability to develop pitching and help these guys continue to grow,” Vogt said on Oct. 7 via MLB.com's Tim Stebbins.“The ball is in his court at all times. As long as I'm here and he wants to be here, Carl Willis will be our pitching coach. We intend to have him back if that's what he would like to do.”

Since manager Terry Francona took over in 2013, the Guardians have faced a yearly trend of losing coaches to promotions due to the team’s success. This pattern has now continued with Vogt, who has led the Guardians to back-to-back postseason appearances in his first two seasons.