Cleveland Guardians get unsettling update on pitching coach Carl Willis

Manager Stephen Vogt retained Willis from Francona’s staff in 2023. He spent time as a coach with the Cleveland Indians from 2003-2009 before helping out the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox ahead of finding his way back to Northeast Ohio in 2018.

Willis replaced Mickey Callaway – and Cleveland’s starting pitchers never missed a beat, consistently developing top-shelf rotations and quality bullpens. It’s become the backbone of what the Guardians do well and has helped the team crack consecutive postseason berths despite below-average batting lineups.

Willis can take responsibility for five different players winning Cy Young awards, including C.C. Sabathia in 2007, Cliff Lee in 2008, Felix Hernandez in 2010, Ricky Porcello in 2016 and Shane Bieber in 2020. That’s established dominance for any coach, especially in a difficult sport like baseball.

More recently, Willis can be credited with developing Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams into reliable aces. Both Bibee and Williams played critical roles in helping the Guardians erase a 15.5 game deficit in the American League Central Division.

While the Guardians continued to slide in the standings, Willis and Vogt met and decided to deploy a six-man starting rotation that would turn fruitful enough to get the Guardians back into the MLB Playoffs.

At 64 years old, nobody would blame Willis if he wanted a bigger challenge as a manager, especially because of his impressive track record developing pitchers. In 2022, Willis served as the manager for a few games while Francona and several players were quarantined due to COVID-19.

At the same time, if he decided to walk away from the sport or join another clubhouse, it would be painful yet understandable. Willis has turned the Guardians into a pitching factory, and hopefully he would be able to hand the baseball to another member of his staff who can keep that theme alive for many years to come.