CLEVELAND, Ohio — Guardians manager Stephen Vogt called the club’s new major league field coordinator, Kai Correa, one of the most self-driven people he has ever met — after getting to know the Hilo native through the hiring process.
“Knowing what he’s done to help infielders get better, what he’s done to help just organize a staff, and I think putting him in that field coordinator role is a perfect spot for him,” Vogt told reporters on Monday.
Vogt said Correa will handle a lot of day-to-day stuff behind the scenes, as well as serving as an aide for infield coach Rouglas Odor and outfield coach JT Maguire.
“He’s just going to bring a wealth of knowledge and experience after being a bench coach for a few years,” Vogt said. “He’s going to really be a good aide for Alby (Craig Albernaz) and myself as well.”
Here’s a little more background on Correa and what he brings to Cleveland.
Coaching baseball
is in his blood
The 35-year-old former infielder comes from a long line of baseball coaches. Both his grandfather, Jimmy Correa, and his father, Tom, were successful high school coaches,, and Kai played for his father at Waiakea High before matriculating at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Jimmy Correa coached for 31 years — and prior to that, played semi-pro ball on the island, competing against big leaguers such as Don Larsen, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra while in the military and in offseason All-Star games.
Kai learned a lot from his grandfather about relationships and how to treat people.
“Although he never made money coaching I always felt he was so rich with social wealth,” Correa told the Tribune-Herald in 2016 after Jimmy passed away at age 96.
“You couldn’t put a price on the relationships he built and the lives he influenced.”
Harsh weather won’t be a problem
Weather can be a little iffy at Progressive Field, particularly during March and April games where the wind chill is sometimes lower than the number of runs scored in a series. But after playing four seasons and then coaching at Puget Sound followed by two seasons coaching infielders at the University of Colorado, Correa should be accustomed to the nasty climate.
At both stops, Correa earned recognition for his ability to boost the fielding percentages of teams that had previously seen hard times on defense.
“It can be snowing on Friday and it can be sunny on Sunday,” Correa told the San Jose Mercury News in 2020 regarding his experiences in Greely, Colorado. “And historically again, not a great defensive team. We were able to flip that just like at Puget Sound. The head coach was forward-thinking enough to allow me to be somewhat experimental and it changed the way we practiced.”
He’s an online
content creator
One of the ways Correa made himself attractive when former Giants manager Gabe Kapler was assembling his staff in 2020 was through his presence on social media. Correa’s instructional videos are all over Instagram reels and TikTok. Players from every level appear locked in and hang on his every word as he demonstrates drills around the infield.
Kapler said as far back as his time coaching in the Dodgers organization, he followed Correa’s videos online. Correa’s ability to express himself and get to his content intrigued Kapler.
“One of the things about coaching that’s very difficult is after you have good content, you have to be able to market it and deliver it in digestible pieces,” Kapler told the San Jose Mercury News.
Analytics will
play a major role
Among Correa’s coaching influences, besides his grandfather and father, is ex-Guardians skipper Terry Francona and former San Francisco bench coach Hensley Meulens, who worked alongside Correa with USA Baseball. With the Giants, Correa helped usher in one of the more analytically savvy coaching programs in the major leagues.
His ability to combine old school and new school philosophies is the reason he was able to go from Division III to the big leagues.
“My style is forward-thinking in regard to how it’s scheduled and the action of what’s going on on the field,” Correa said. “But when you break down the individual activities and the acts and the cues and the movement solutions, they’re things that infielders have been doing from the beginning of professional baseball.”
Meanwhile, Vogt insists that the qualities he went after in filling out his major league coaching staff are exactly what Correa will bring to the club in 2024.
“The best coaches I ever had cared about the people, they cared about the person first,” Vogt said. “They put themselves on the back burner. It’s not about them, it’s about the players and obviously very knowledgeable in their area from a technical standpoint as well, that’s obviously very important, but really just people who understand that this is about the team, this is about the players, and they elevate themselves to help the players get better every single day.”
