Willis back as pitching coach
Indians’ new hire has overseen four Cy Young winners.
CLEVELAND — Replacing a pitching coach as well-respected as Mickey Callaway is no easy task, though the Indians feel they got their guy. Or, rather, they returned him home.
The Indians on Thursday announced the hiring of Carl Willis as their new pitching coach. Willis had been with the Boston Red Sox in the same role and has plenty of prior experience in Cleveland, as he acted as the Indians’ pitching coach from 200309 and later returned in different capacities for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
For Willis, Cleveland was an attractive destination both as a familiar organization and as one brimming with pitching talent.
“I just feel like the culture there and knowing the people and the expectations, but just how much caring and how much of a family it really is, it’s a very, very unique situation,” Willis said. “I think [it’s] a situation that’s hard to find elsewhere and that along with the fact that I did come back for a brief period of time in 2014 and early 2015 and knowing a few of the pitchers and knowing still most of the staff, it’s just a very comfortable situation.”
Callaway left the Indians this week to become manager for the New York Mets. Callaway had earned a strong reputation as a pitching coach, one who helped to resurrect the careers of Ubaldo Jimenez, Scott Kazmir and others, not to mention being the overseer of the blossoming of pitchers like Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Danny Salazar and Trevor Bauer.
The Indians were one of four teams to show interest, according to Willis. Once they had identified their target, they wanted to move fast.
“We moved quickly because there was a lot of competition out there for pitching coaches,” said Indians manager Terry Francona. “The fact that he knows so many of our pitchers, knows our organization is a huge bonus. He’ll hit the ground running.”
Willis’ résumé as a pitching coach is extensive, and it includes four Cy Young winners under his watch, including CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee with the Indians in 2007 and 2008, Felix Fernandez with the Seattle Mariners in 2010 and Rick Porcello with the Boston Red Sox in 2016.
“What we didn’t want to do with Mickey leaving is try to put a Band-Aid [on it], stop a leak,” Francona said. “We wanted to get better. That’s what drew us to Carl.”
The Indians can next turn their attention to replacing assistant hitting coach Matt Quatraro, who left to be the Tampa Bay Rays’ third base coach. Hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo is still on staff. Francona said the Indians became consumed with quickly filling the pitching coach vacancy and are vetting names. They are also seeking to continue their approach of having two hitting coaches.
“I think for years you had a hitting coach and nobody really thought anything of it,” Francona said. “I think with the amount of information that is out there now, the amount that we’re at the ballpark, the amount of work we do, it’s not fair to ask one guy to do everything. I think having two guys that complement each other can be really helpful.”