CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland’s chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America elected Carl Willis as its 2025 Good Guy award winner at its annual meeting.
Jose Ramirez was also honored, receiving the Bob Feller Man of the Year award. Willis is a first-time winner of the award named after former Cleveland Press columnist Frank Gibbons and Indians pitcher Steven Olin.
Ramirez won the award for a record fourth time. Indians owner Bill Veeck won the initial award in 1946.
The Good Guy award goes to a member of the organization that understands the media’s job when it comes to covering a big league team and cooperates whenever possible. Listening to Willis talk about pitching is like getting a master’s class in the subject.
Said manager Stephen Vogt at the Guardians’ end-of-the-season press conference, “Carl’s presence is invaluable, let alone his ability to develop pitching and help these guys continue to grow.”
Willis just finished his 15th season over two tours as Cleveland’s pitching coach. His first tour ran from 2003 through 2009 under manager Eric Wedge. He returned to Cleveland as a special assistant in 2014 and in 2015 was named the pitching coach at Triple-A Columbus before Boston hired him as its pitching coach later that season.
The Guardians brought him back to Cleveland as Terry Francona’s pitching coach in 2017 and he’s been here ever since.
“What Carl and the other pitching coaches, Joe Torres, Brad Goldberg and Caleb Longshore do with our pitchers is unbelievable,” said catcher Austin Hedges. “That’s why we have some of the best young arms in the game.”
The Guardians’ big goal for the 2025 season was to improve their starting rotation. In 2024, Cleveland’s rotation posted a 4.40 ERA, 24th in the big leagues. This year they improve to 10th with a 3.86 ERA.
In September, the Guardians went 20-7, winning the AL Central on the last day of the season. On Sept. 1, they decided to go with a six-man rotation, and it produced 19 straight games in which the starters allowed two or fewer runs.
“They just stopped giving up runs,” said Hedges.
Willis pitched for nine years in the big leagues, winning World Series rings with the 1984 Tigers and 1991 Twins. He began his coaching career in Cleveland’s minor league system in 1997.
In May of 2022, Willis temporarily replaced Francona as manager for a three-game series in Minneapolis. Francona and most of the coaching staff were unavailable after testing positive for COVID-19.
Needless to say, Willis was nervous. As he sat in his office getting ready for the series, former Twins manager Tom Kelly called him. Kelly, Willis’ manager when he pitched for the Twins, gave him a crash course in Managing 101.
Willis was moved by the gesture and in a lot of ways that’s how he works with the Guardians’ pitchers. His mound visits during tense times in a game have allowed more than one pitcher to escape trouble.
Last offseason, Willis spent time with Gavin Williams, Cleveland’s No. 1 pick in 2021.
Williams was coming off an injury-delayed 3-10 season in 2024. This year he went 12-5 with a 3.06 ERA in 31 starts. He flirted with a no-hitter against the Mets on Aug. 6.
“Carl is awesome,” said Williams, who started Game 1 of the wild card series against Detroit in October. “We talked a lot over the offseason and tweaked some things in my delivery.”
Willis, 64, has coached five Cy Young winners in CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Rick Porcello and Shane Bieber. Sabathia, Lee and Bieber won their Cy Youngs with Cleveland.
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