Carl Blake Willis (born December 28, 1960) is an American former professional baseball

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and current

pitching coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

for the

Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He was previously the pitching coach for the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

and the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

. Willis played for nine seasons in the majors as a

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

and

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

. He is best known as a pitching coach for five Cy Young winners, the second most in MLB history.

Playing career

Willis was born on December 28, 1960, in

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...

. He grew up in

Yanceyville, North Carolina Yanceyville is a town in and the county seat of Caswell County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Piedmont Triad region of the state, the town had a population of 1,937 at the 2020 census. The settlement was founded in 1792 and was ...

. After high school, he attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. As a major leaguer, Willis was a member of one

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

championship team: the Twins in the

1991 World Series The 1991 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) held after the 1991 season. The 88th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Minnesota Twins ...

. In nine seasons he had a 22–16 win–loss record, 267 games, 2 games started, 81 games finished, 13 saves, 390 innings pitched, 424 hits allowed, 210 runs allowed, 184 earned runs allowed, 28 home runs allowed, 115 walks allowed, 222 strikeouts, 2 hit batsmen, 20 wild pitches, 1,668 batters faced, 25 intentional walks, 3 balks and a 4.25 ERA. He was worth 1.9 career WAR according to

Baseball Reference Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

Coaching career

From 2003 to 2009 he served as the pitching coach for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

. On November 30, 2009, Willis was named the

minor-league pitching coordinator. On August 9, 2010, Willis was promoted to the

coaching staff as the new pitching coach, replacing

Rick Adair Michael Richard Adair (born January 19, 1958) is a former pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles and a former minor league baseball player. He was succeeded as pitching coach by Bill Castro. Playing career As a player, Adair played college b ...

who was fired along with manager

Don Wakamatsu Wilbur Donald Wakamatsu (born February 22, 1963) is an American former professional baseball player, scout, coach, and manager. Wakamatsu was drafted in the 11th round of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft by the Cincinnati Reds. He played as ...

and bench coach

Ty Van Burkleo Tyler Lee Van Burkleo (born October 7, 1963) is a former bench coach for the Seattle Mariners, hitting coach for the Cleveland Indians, and a former first baseman in Major League Baseball. He played for two different major league teams in his care ...

. He served in this capacity until 2013. In 2015, Willis was named to be the pitching coach for the

Columbus Clippers The Columbus Clippers are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League (IL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. They are located in Columbus, Ohio, and are named for speedy Merchant ship, mercha ...

in the

organization. On May 9, 2015, Willis was named as the pitching coach for the

, replacing Juan Nieves. On October 26, 2017, Willis was re-hired by the Indians as pitching coach, replacing

Mickey Callaway Michael Christopher Callaway (born May 13, 1975) is an American professional baseball coach and former pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Anaheim Angels, and Texas Rangers and in the KBO Leagu ...

. Willis has had five pitchers win

Cy Young Award The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL). The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall ...

s during his time as their pitching coach:

CC Sabathia Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr. (born July 21, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the New York Yankees. He also played for the Cleveland Indians and Milwauke ...

in 2007, Cliff Lee in 2008, Félix Hernández in 2010, Rick Porcello in 2016, and

Shane Bieber Shane Robert Bieber (born May 31, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played college baseball for the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos baseball team as a walk-on. He was drafted ...

in 2020. In May 2022, Willis assumed managerial duties for a few games after a

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

outbreak among Guardians coaching staff that saw Manager Terry Francona, First Base Coach

Sandy Alomar Jr. Santos "Sandy" Alomar Velázquez Jr. (, ; born June 18, 1966) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher between 1988 and 2007, most notably as a member of the Cleve ...

, Bench Coach

DeMarlo Hale DeMarlo Hale (born July 16, 1961) is an American professional baseball coach who is currently serving as bench coach for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). Hale played minor league baseball from 1983 to 1988 in the Boston Re ...

, Third Base Coach

Mike Sarbaugh James Michael Sarbaugh (born April 25, 1967) is a baseball coach for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is a former minor league baseball player and minor league manager for the Columbus Clippers, the Triple-A farm team of ...

, Hitting Analyst Justin Toole, Assistant Pitching Coach Joe Torres, and Hitting Coach Chris Valaika all end up on the COVID list.

References

External links

, o
Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Carl 1960 births Living people American expatriate baseball players in Canada Baseball coaches from Virginia Baseball players from Virginia Birmingham Barons players Boston Red Sox coaches Bristol Tigers players Cincinnati Reds players Chicago White Sox players Cleveland Indians coaches Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Denver Zephyrs players Detroit Tigers players Edmonton Trappers players Evansville Triplets players Lakeland Tigers players Major League Baseball pitching coaches Major League Baseball pitchers Minnesota Twins players Minor league baseball coaches Nashville Sounds players Portland Beavers players Seattle Mariners coaches Sportspeople from Danville, Virginia UNC Wilmington Seahawks baseball players Vancouver Canadians players People from Yanceyville, North Carolina

Playing career

Coaching career

References

Further reading

External links