The Boston Red Sox have found a replacement for pitching coach Juan Nieves amid the starting rotation's struggles, which rank them at the bottom of the MLB. The club also addressed the consistent woes of a veteran outfielder.
On Saturday the Red Sox hired Carl Willis to replace Nieves, according to Peter Abraham and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Willis was the pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians' Triple-A Columbus affiliate this year. The club obtained permission to speak with him and reached an agreement shortly thereafter.
The 54-year-old returned to the Indians' system last season after working as a pitching coach at various levels from 1997-2009. In 2010, Willis was hired by then-Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge to be the club's pitching coach, but Wedge and the rest of his staff were fired after a third straight losing campaign in 2013.
Willis was a former big-league relief pitcher with the Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins from 1984-1995. He finished his career 22-16 with a 4.25 ERA, 1.382 WHIP and 222 strikeouts in 267 games. He joined the Indians less than two years later and actually ended up working closely with Red Sox manager John Farrell, who was the director of player development for Cleveland from 2001-2006.
The connection was what likely began this new relationship with Farrell on the Red Sox staff. Willis joined Boston on Saturday and now looks to provide a new voice for one of the worst starting rotations in the MLB, which consists of Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley, Joe Kelly and Justin Masterson.
Farrell also made a change on the club's roster. On Sunday he sent outfielder Allen Craig to Triple-A Pawtucket (as well as reliever Robbie Ross Jr.) and called up outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. (and pitcher Steven Wright), according to Abraham. Craig, who was once perhaps viewed as a good trade candidate, was batting .135/.237/.192 with five runs scored, one home run and two RBIs in 24 games (59 plate appearances) before being sent down.
On the other hand, Bradley has seemingly experienced an offensive revival at Pawtucket this year. After batting just .198/.265/.266 with 45 runs scored, one home run and 30 RBIs in 127 games with Boston last season, he slashed .343/.393/.465 with 12 runs scored, one home run and nine RBIs in 24 games with Pawtucket. He's now expected to split right field duties with Shane Victorino.
As for Craig, it's unknown what's next for the 30-year-old. The Red Sox dangled him as trade bait throughout the offseason, but teams were not interested considering he had an awful 2014 campaign (.215/.279/.315 with 41 runs scored, 8 home runs and 46 RBIs in 126 games with St. Louis and Boston) and is still owed $26.5 million through 2017.
Unless Craig can dramatically rebound before the trade deadline or the Red Sox are willing to cover most of the money remaining on his contract, it looks like Boston will be stuck with the struggling outfielder for the time being.
