Mets hire 2 coaches for Mendoza's new staff

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets are hiring Kai Correa as bench coach and promoting Jeff Albert to oversee their major league hitting program, the team announced Wednesday.

Correa and Albert are the first replacements after the Mets elected to overhaul manager Carlos Mendoza's coaching staff in the wake of a disappointing 83-79 season that ended without a playoff berth.

The 37-year-old Correa, born in Hawaii, spent the past two seasons as the Cleveland Guardians' major league field coordinator. Added to his title this year was director of defense, strategy and baserunning.

Before that, Correa was San Francisco's bench coach from 2020-23 and served as interim manager for three games after the Giants fired skipper Gabe Kapler in September 2023.

Correa replaces John Gibbons, who resigned as Mendoza's bench coach after the season.

Albert, who turns 45 on Halloween, was the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting coach from 2019-22. He spent the past three seasons as the Mets' director of hitting development and now will assume a prominent role with the big league club.

New York announced Oct. 3 that hitting coaches Jeremy Barnes and Eric Chavez won't return in 2026, along with several other members of Mendoza's staff.

The team still needs to replace pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, third base coach Mike Sarbaugh and catching coach Glenn Sherlock, who retired.

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FILE - San Francisco Giants interim manager Kai Correa speaks to reporters before a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in San Francisco, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

BERLIN (AP) — The German government said Monday that it’s lifting its restrictions on exports of military equipment to Israel, weeks after the ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in early August that Berlin wouldn’t authorize any exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza “until further notice." That was a response to a decision by the Israeli Cabinet to take over Gaza City.

Merz’s spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, told German news agency dpa that the restrictions will be lifted from Nov. 24. He pointed to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that went into effect last month and said that it has “stabilized in recent weeks,” and also to efforts to ramp up humanitarian aid in Gaza and secure a long-term peace.

German will now return to examining military exports on a case-by-base basis and “react to further developments,” he added.

Merz's decision in August was a remarkable move by a country that is a staunch ally of Israel. The Israeli foreign minister welcomed its lifting Monday in a post on social network X.

“I call on other governments to adopt similar decisions, following Germany,” Gideon Saar wrote.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrives for the cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)