Over the past two years the Red Sox have seen their pitching development take an enormous leap forward, but now one of the individuals most responsible for that success looks set to move on.
According to Will Sammon of The Athletic and others, Red Sox director of pitching Justin Willard is the favorite to take over as New York Mets pitching coach.
Willard would succeed Jeremy Hefner, who was fired after the Mets endured a catastrophic second-half collapse that saw them miss the postseason after at one point standing 21 games over .500.
Willard, 35, has spent the past two seasons as Boston’s director of pitching, a role that placed him in charge of shaping the pitching program used by the major league club and at every step of the minor league ladder all the way to Fort Myers and the Dominican Academy. He was among chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s first hires after previously serving in a similar role with the Minnesota Twins, and he also played college baseball at Concord University in West Virginia.
MLB notes: Tasked with building Red Sox new pitching pipeline, Justin Willard is getting to work
Under Willard’s leadership the Red Sox have seen their homegrown pitching talent flourish. In his first season with the club Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford all enjoyed breakout seasons, and this past year numerous young arms made the leap and impacted the big league club, including Richard Fitts, Hunter Dobbins, Kyle Harrison, Connelly Early and Payton Tolle, who went from High-A to the majors in his first season of professional baseball.
Willard’s background in player development makes him a logical candidate for the Mets, whose rotation next season could feature a number of young homegrown arms including Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong.
Willard becomes the latest notable Red Sox staffer to leave this offseason. Assistant general manager Paul Toboni was hired as president of baseball operations by the Washington Nationals, and he has also brought former Red Sox amateur scouting director Devin Pearson and minor league field coordinator Andrew Wright with him to Washington.
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