ST. LOUIS — Carl Willis pondered retirement. Maybe it was the right time, he briefly considered last fall, with Terry Francona stepping down and much of the coaching staff turning over.
He could take care of his mom. He could spend his Saturday afternoons watching his beloved North Carolina football team.
But he felt indebted to the organization he has worked for much of the last 30 years, the franchise he says “changed my life.” He still felt compelled to mentor the pitchers, partner with the player development staff and horse around with another Cleveland coaching staple in Sandy Alomar Jr.
And then Willis connected with Stephen Vogt.
“I don’t want to use that cliche, ‘I believe in Stephen Vogt,’” Willis said, referencing the chant Oakland fans used to shout at the longtime catcher. “But I was really excited.”
Conversations between the two stoked Willis’ fire and convinced him to keep coaching. Cleveland’s staff would have a bunch of new faces, but it would have an organizational pillar overseeing the pitching.
For this to work, for the Guardians to rebound from last year’s flop, for them to reattain American League Central supremacy, for them to have any chance of ending the league’s longest championship drought, they needed a sturdy infrastructure.
They needed Willis, who guided CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and Shane Bieber to Cy Young Awards and helped sustain Cleveland’s vaunted pitching factory. They needed veteran catcher Austin Hedges to return some leadership to the clubhouse and be a conduit to the coaching staff. And they needed to be right about Vogt, their first managerial hire in 11 years.
So here they were, the night of Sept. 21, nearly a year removed from the end of a rotten season, nearly 11 months removed from their decision to hire a first-time manager who had never coached in a big-league dugout. Here they were, once again soaking each other in champagne.
On Thursday evening, they celebrated a playoff berth. Fifty-four hours later, they littered the visitors clubhouse floor at Busch Stadium with discarded corks as they toasted their second AL Central title in three years. It’s their 12th division crown since the AL Central was formed 30 years ago.
Back to work tomorrow, but tomorrow isn’t tonight. 🍾#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/DTncibmADN
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) September 22, 2024
“It’s probably gone beyond anything I could imagine,” Willis said.
Three and a half weeks ago, the Guardians and Kansas City Royals were tied atop the division.
“There are no prizes for first place in August,” Vogt said.
The teams sprinted in opposite directions after that, and the Royals’ loss Saturday evening clinched the division for Cleveland. The Guardians’ coaches hugged and shook hands in the dugout. A couple of hours later, another celebration commenced. Vogt, 39 years old and a father of three, said he’ll have no choice but to arrive at the ballpark with plenty of pep Sunday morning, to match his younger players who won’t have as much trouble rebounding from two beer bashes in three days.
The bass from the music blaring in the clubhouse rattled some memorabilia in a display case down the hall. That is until the playlist once again shifted to “Rocky Top” by the Osborne Brothers, a nod to Knoxville, Tenn., native Lane Thomas, the club’s trade deadline acquisition. Hedges and team president Chris Antonetti embraced in perhaps the most emphatic hug of the night, and Vogt ambushed the two with a champagne shower.
For Vogt to survive his rookie season as manager, let alone thrive, he needed capable lieutenants. He swears by bench coach Craig Albernaz, who has challenged him and prepared him and never stops forecasting scenarios in Vogt’s ear as a game unfolds. After a 10-minute phone call with Hedges over the winter, Vogt knew he could lean on the former catcher to spread the knowledge he gained last year from the World Series-winning Texas Rangers and hold teammates accountable when a player’s insistence would prove more effective than a coach’s admonishment.
And then there’s Willis, the cog nicknamed “Big Train” who keeps the pitching factory churning. This wasn’t a prototypical Cleveland pitching season. The Guardians’ rotation, the eternal backbone of the team, was a stressful source of nightly reevaluation and planning.
Through two starts, Bieber appeared headed toward another Cy Young-caliber season. Then, his elbow begged for mercy.
“We sorely miss (him),” Willis said.
Triston McKenzie and Logan Allen spent much of the season at Triple-A Columbus. The club scooped up Matthew Boyd from the trainer’s table to help rescue the rotation. It relied on journeyman Ben Lively to spit out one quality start after another. It swung a trade for Alex Cobb, but the veteran has spent the majority of his Cleveland tenure on the injured list.
More than anything, the Guardians leaned on their league-best bullpen to bail out the starters and the offense. No one would have envisioned such a dominant group coalescing when three of its unconquerable mainstays — Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin — weren’t even expected to break camp with the big-league club until injuries and illnesses ravaged the roster. Instead, the bullpen is the driving force behind the team’s October hopes.
“No one likes coming out of the game,” Willis said, “but when Vogt says, ‘That’s enough for the day’ and you look over your shoulder and Cade Smith’s trotting in, it’s like, ‘OK, I’ll go to the dugout.’”
Without Willis, whom Vogt said “keeps me calm” and “has forgotten more than I know,” this might not have been possible.
“We’ve had to work really hard, and Carl more than most,” Vogt said. “We wouldn’t be in the position we are without him.”
For Willis, it’s validation of his decision to return. And it’s a reminder of what he craves most from another season in the game.
“I just want to finish it off,” Willis said. “For selfish reasons, because it’s what we all are in this game for. For the Dolan family and for Chris and (GM Mike Chernoff) and everybody involved, and the players.
“I just want to see it happen.”
(Top photo of Stephen Vogt: Jeff Curry / Imagn Images)
