The Cleveland Guardians are finalizing their coaching staff for the 2024 season.
With first-year manager Stephen Vogt set to lead the team next spring, the club announced a series of hires alongside returns of coaches for the upcoming year - including some familiar faces.
Pitching coach Carl Willis and first base/catching coach Sandy Alomar Jr. are set to return on Vogt’s new staff. Alomar will enter his 15th season in Cleveland, while Willis will mark his 14th year with the Guardians.
“I think it was paramount to have them come back,” said Vogt in a Monday press teleconference. “Especially with the experience levels of Carl and Sandy, their wealth of knowledge, and their love for Cleveland and the players here. They’re going to be a huge help for me.”
Another returning staff member, Chris Valaika, will enter his third season as hitting coach.
“Bringing Chris back, and having continuity with the hitting group going into this year, I think was really important,” Vogt explained.
The Guardians also confirmed the returns of assistant pitching coach Joe Torres, assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez, outfield coach JT Maguire, run production coordinator Jason Esposito, and bullpen catchers Armando Camacaro and Ricky Pacione, while Josh Tubbs has been elevated to the role of Major League hitting analyst.
“My favorite part is that a majority of these [moves] are internal, and the Cleveland organization as a whole - the minor leagues, the player development system - has been so strong in helping guys get to the big leagues. Now, to be able to promote from within, I think is just a huge thing for us to do,” Vogt added.
Alongside the returning coaches will be new hires and transitions, including a pair of promotions from the team’s Player Development system. Rouglas Odor was hired as the Guardians’ new infield coach, while Brad Goldberg was named the bullpen coach.
Odor, 55, joins Cleveland after a four-year managerial tenure with the Double-A Akron RubberDucks. The uncle of MLB infielder Rougned Odor, Rouglas was a 32nd-round draft pick by Cleveland in 1988, playing six years in their farm system. As the RubberDucks’ manager, Odor posted a 278-257 record with a 2021 Double-A Northeast division title.
Vogt confirmed Odor would serve as the third base coach, succeeding longtime Guardians base coach Mike Sarbaugh, while adding that the club’s replay coordinator position - formerly held by Mike Barnett - was “still a work in progress.”
When asked about promoting Odor after his years of developmental coaching, Vogt explained: "Just speaking with ‘Rougey' for the first time, you can just feel his passion and love for the players, and for the game of baseball. More so, the development he’s going to have with our young infielders. He’s worked with a lot of these guys as they’ve come up through the ranks together. There’s familiarity. There’s a relationship and trust, there already.
“He’s earned this. He’s earned this opportunity. That was one of the most fun phone calls I’ve ever made, to tell him he’s going to be on the staff. We couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Goldberg, 33, was the pitching coach for Odor and Akron last season, helping RubberDucks pitchers post the 2nd-lowest earned run average (3.87) in the Eastern League. Also like Odor, Goldberg played six years of minor league baseball (2013-18), shuffling through the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox farm systems while appearing in 11 games for the White Sox in 2017. The Beachwood, Ohio native joined Cleveland in 2022 as a pitching coach for the club’s Arizona Player Development Complex. Prior to joining Cleveland, Goldberg was the Director of Pitching Development at The Ohio State University from 2021 to 2022.
The Guardians also reunited with one of their former coaches in hiring Kai Correa as their new field coordinator. Correa, 35, returns to Cleveland following a four-year run as the San Francisco Giants’ bench coach. Correa took over managerial duties for the final three games of 2023 following Gabe Kapler’s departure. A native of Hilo, Hawaii, Correa originally coached at Cleveland’s Arizona complex for the 2018 and ’19 seasons.
“Knowing what he’s done to help infielders get better, what he’s done to organize a staff, putting him in that field coordinator role is a perfect spot for him,” Vogt said about Correa.
With former bench coach/fill-in manager DeMarlo Hale leaving for Toronto this offseason, the Guardians tapped Craig Albernaz as their new bench coach. The 41-year-old Albernaz joined the club on Nov. 10 after four seasons as the Giants’ bullpen coach.
“Obviously, DeMarlo leaving left a pretty big hole in our staff, but to have Craig step up and take that spot, I think it’s the most important relationship because he’s going to push me," said Vogt. "He’s going to challenge me in a lot of ways. He’s going to support me, but it’s not always going to be easy. To have somebody that I know very well, personally, and who’s pushed me my entire career, is going to continue to do that, and, I want to do that for him.”
Albernaz and Vogt crossed paths as teammates for the Tampa Bay Rays’ minor league affiliates Durham (Triple-A) and Montgomery (Double-A) during the 2011 and ’12 seasons.