Stephen

Vogt

Fink was the Guardians’ minor league hitting coordinator the last three years, so he’ll have some familiarity with some of the Cleveland hitters. He replaces Chris Valaika, who left the Guardians to join Terry Francona’s staff in Cincinnati.

It’s a bit jarring to see three managers from the same division in the mix here, but the trio are all deserving candidates after leading the Tigers, Royals, and Guardians, respectively, to the postseason. Hinch might be a slight favorite after engineering a pretty unexpected turnaround in Detroit last season, guiding the club to an 86-win season and a playoff berth. The same goes for Quatraro, who took Kansas City from 56 wins in his managerial debut to 86 victories this past season. Vogt was at the helm for 92 wins and an AL Central division title in his managerial debut.

That means the Guardians will pick first in the 2024 MLB Draft. The Reds also benefitted greatly from Tuesday’s lottery, as they moved up from what would have been the 14th pick in the first round, all the way up to the second selection. The Rockies, Athletics and Royals — each of whom had the best odds at securing the top pick at 18.3 percent — will pick third, fourth and sixth respectively — with the White Sox moving up to the fifth pick. The Cardinals, Angels, Pirates and Nationals will round out the top 10.

Correa spent the last three seasons as the Giants’ bench coach, and even had a three-game stint a few weeks ago as San Francisco’s interim manager following the late-September firing of manager Gabe Kapler. The 35-year-old joins newly-minted Guardians manager Stephen Vogt’s coaching staff and will likely be involved in at least some capacity with infielders and defensive instruction.

It appears likely that Craig Counsell turned them down and the Guardians moved on to the second choice. Vogt, who was serving as the Mariners’ bullpen coach, gets the managerial gig just one year after his retirement as a player. The 39-year-old hit .239/.301/.406 in 10 years as a major leaguer. He’s replacing Terry Francona in Cleveland.

Vogt, who retired as a player after the 2022 season, spent this year as the Mariners’ bullpen coach. Going straight from that to major league manager would be quite a leap, but Vogt might be up for it. He also interviewed for the Giants’ opening.

Vogt makes the leap directly from playing last season with the Athletics to serving on Mariners’ manager Scott Servais’s staff in a coaching role. The 38-year-old wrapped up a 10-year playing career a few months ago and has already transitioned to the next phase of his baseball life. Good stuff.

It’s no surprise, as Vogt announced his intentions before the end of the regular season -- which led to an awesome moment in which he homered off of Zack Weiss in his final plate appearance. The 38-year-old backstop slashed .239/.301/.406 with 82 homers and 313 RBI in 2598 plate appearances for the Rays, Athletics, Brewers, Giants, Diamondbacks and Braves.

Vogt, who announced last month that he would be retiring following a 10-year major league career, went deep off of Zack Weiss in the seventh inning in what turned out to be the last plate appearance of his career. Pretty cool. The fact that Vogt didn’t reach the big leagues until the age of 27 and still managed to last as long as he did is even cooler.

It was his first triple of 2022 and 13th of his 10-year career, and since it came with the bases loaded, it gave him his first three-RBI game of the year. He’s now hitting .168/.249/.323 in 177 plate appearances.