Leopoldo Correa

Leopoldo Alberto Correa Herrera

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.

• Born December 3, 1991 in Ocumare del Tuy, Miranda Venezuela

BR register page

Biographical Information

Leopoldo Correa has played in Venezuela, the US and Spain and for the Spanish national team.

Correa was signed by Tampa Bay Rays scout Ronnie Blanco. He hit .161/.347/.339 for the VSL Rays in 2009, fielding .744 at third base with more errors (10) than hits (9). He improved to .251/.335/.335 and .927 at 3B the next year. He was better yet at .322/.414/.500 with 54 RBI in 64 games in 2011, though his fielding fell to .897. He tied Rusbel Fariñez and Ramon Coronel for 6th in the Venezuelan Summer League in hits (74), tied Jose Soledad and Jose Roman for 4th in doubles (17), was third in homers (after Óscar Hernández and Franklin Paz), second in RBI (12 behind Hernández), ranked 9th in average (between future Spanish national teammate Jesús Ustariz and Roman), 7th in OBP (between Kenny Hart and Miguel Mendez), 3rd in slugging (trailing Hernández and Ulises Montilla) and 3rd in OPS (behind the same two).

The Miranda native came stateside in 2012, batting .256/.336/.314 for the GCL Rays and fielding .935 at third. In '13, he was at .223/.288/.314 for the Princeton Rays as a backup corner infielder. His last season in the US, he put up a .256/.269/.289 batting line for the Hudson Valley Renegades. He had hit .262/.345/.370 with 97 runs and 104 RBI in 235 games in the minors, fielding .911 at 3B and .978 at 1B. He moved to San Inazio Bilbao in Spain's Division de Honor for 2016. His first season, he produced at a .368/.444/.509 clip, fielding .968. He was 5th in average, 7th in slugging (between Richard Montiel and Hector Perozo), 7th in OBP, tied for 3rd in hits (39), tied Víctor Velásquez for second with 11 doubles (2 behind Ustariz), tied for second in triples (2, one behind Yancarlo Franco) and was 7th with 54 total bases.

In 2017, he was even better at .423/.444/.658 with 29 RBI in 27 games, fielding .990 (mostly at 1B). He was second in average (.017 behind Michel Rodriguez), third in slugging (after Rodriguez and Sandel Cuevas), first in hits (47, 6 ahead of Roibert Decena and Lesther Galván), 5th in RBI, 1st in doubles (17, 6 more than Decena and Galván) and 2nd with 73 total bases (behind Rodriguez).

As if .423 wasn't high enough, Leopoldo leapt higher in '18 by hitting .484/.576/.762 for San Inazio Bilbao, with 38 runs and 48 RBI in 32 games. He caught regularly, fielding .969 and throwing out 30.4% of those who tried to steal. He somehow lost the batting title (.004 behind Decena) and was 4th in slugging, 1st in OBP (.007 ahead of Cuevas), tied for 9th in runs (with Eric Segura), 2nd in hits (61, 4 behind Franco), 3rd in RBI (behind Blake Ochoa and Montiel), tied Emmanuel Febles for 2nd in doubles (15), 9th in homers (6), tied Montiel for the most total bases (96) and tied Edgar Rondon for 6th in walks (29).

Correa batted .429/.522/.643 with 36 runs and 34 RBI in 28 games in 2019, fielding .874, apparently in an infield role. He was among the leaders in average (5th, between Montiel and Decena), OBP (5th, between Edison Valerio and Decena), runs (8th), hits (tied Rodriguez for 1st), RBI (8th), doubles (12, tied for 4th with Rafael Rivas), total bases (72, 9th), walks (21, 10th), assists (86, 1st, 8 ahead of Franco) and errors (17, 1st). He followed with a .417/.556/.979 season in 2020, with 13 runs in 13 games in a campaign shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic.He was 9th in average, 2nd in slugging (.095 behind Galván), 6th in OBP, tied for 2nd with 7 homers (six behind Galván), tied Ochoa for 8th in RBI (20), tied for first with two triples and tied Leomartires Rodriguez for fifth in total bases (47).

The Division de Honor was renamed the Spanish Baseball League in '21 and Correa posted a .400/.505/.671 batting line that year with 31 runs in 22 contests. He fielded .951. He was 6th in runs, 7th in hits (34), 4th in doubles (11), tied Wander Encarnacion for 9th in total bases (57) and was 9th with 50 assists but did not make the top 10 in any of the rate stats. In 2022, he hit .336/.405/.496 and fielded .927 as a SS/3B. He tied Montiel and Valerio for 8th in hits (38), tied for 10th in dingers (4), was 3rd in RBI (after Encarnacion and Decena), was third with 67 assists and tied for 5th with 8 errors.

Playing for Spain in the 2022 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, the veteran was used as a pinch-hitter. His first at-bat, he batted for Justin Connell and singled off Filip Čapka to score Frank Hernández with the final run of a 21-7 rout of the Czech national team. Pinch-hitting for Galván in the 10th inning against Great Britain, he grounded out against Tahnaj Thomas, the runner from third failing to score; Spain fell in the bottom of the inning. In their last game, down 3-1 against the Czechs with a spot in the 2023 World Baseball Classic at stake, he batted for Galván and hit into a force. Frank Hernández ran for him but was stranded and Spain was eliminated.