Credit: The Associated Press
Boston Red Sox' Andrew Benintendi is congratulated by Boston Red Sox' third base coach Brian Butterfield after hitting a two-run home run off Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger during the first inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Monday Aug. 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Phil Long)If the Red Sox were looking for experienced coaches to help the inexperienced Alex Cora, who is about to enter his first year as manager after serving only one year as the bench coach for the Houston Astros, they’ll have to look elsewhere.
The current coaching staff, full of experienced voices, is disbanding.
After firing John Farrell, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told the coaches on staff they were free to look for jobs with other clubs while the Sox found a new manager. Ultimately it would be the new manager’s decision if the current coaches were going to stay employed.
But given time to look around, most of the coaches have left.
Brian Butterfield, the Sox’ infield instructor and third base coach, who just completed his 38th year of professional baseball, his 21st year of major league coaching and his fifth year on the Red Sox staff, has joined the Chicago Cubs coaching staff where he’ll handle third base coaching duties under Joe Maddon.
Chili Davis, the hitting coach the last three years who has been coaching since 2011, is also joining the Cubs. He’ll be their new hitting coach.
And Carl Willis, the pitching coach for the last 2-1/2 seasons who helped Rick Porcello win a Cy Young Award and Chris Sale become a Cy Young candidate, has joined the Cleveland Indians where he’ll be Terry Francona’s pitching coach. Willis previously worked for the Indians.
Willis took over in Boston for the fired Juan Nieves on May 11, 2015. Since then, the Red Sox posted a seventh-ranked 3.94 ERA and eighth-ranked 1.28 WHIP (T-8th). Before Willis arrived, the Sox had a 4.97 ERA and 1.42 WHIP.
Davis, who hit 350 homers in his playing days, found similar success with Boston hitters. After the Sox scored just 3.91 runs per game under Greg Colbrunn in 2014, they scored 4.96 runs per game (1st in the majors) while hitting .268 (2nd) under Davis. But they had little success in the postseason and the power disappeared in 2017.
Butterfield’s absence will undoubtedly be felt in multiple areas, particularly because he worked so closely with young infielders Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, among others.
But his work at third base had come under some fire late in the year, particularly given the Red Sox’ wild baserunning habits. Butterfield sent Mitch Moreland around third base and left him dead at home plate by a few seconds during the ALDS against the Astros, marking the 30th time the Red Sox made an out at home this year, most in the majors.
Under Butterfield, the Red Sox have made at least 60 outs on the bases in each of his five seasons, including a major-league worst 81 outs on the bases during the 2017 regular season.