Last week, as the news broke that Carl Willis was pondering retirement in 2026, Corey Kluber emerged as a candidate who was added to the coaching staff should be the next pitching coach for the Cleveland Guardians.
This week, longtime Guardians analyst Bruce Drennan agreed that Kluber would be a great candidate during his show on the BIGPLAY Sports Network.
“He could slide in to that role, he’s got an even keel demeanor. And he’s just a brilliant pitching mind,” Drennan said.
— Bruce Drennan Show (@Bruce_Drennan) October 13, 2025As time moves on, it seems more and more like a forgone conclusion that Kluber would be the logical decision to succeed Carl Willis. This quote from an mlb.com report via Tim Stebbins in May, when Kluber was hired as a special assistant seems to demonstrate that.
“It’s just a great fit. It’s a great presence for our young pitchers,” pitching coach Carl Willis said. “They know what he accomplished in his career, particularly what he accomplished here. He’s not that far removed that he can still relate to the player and everything.”
Having grown and developed in Cleveland’s system there is no one who is better prepared than Kluber to continue to maintain the Guardians reputation as a pitching development factory. Willis did an outstanding job in his seven years as Cleveland’s pitching coach, but he was just the latest in a long line of outstanding pitching minds.
Although his predecessor Mickey Callaway’s career was marred with controversy, there is no doubt that he also developed pitchers in his seven seasons as pitching coach.
Callaway was the one who developed the “Five Aces” rotation of Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Danny Salazar, and Carlos Carrasco all who went through struggles before becoming the dominant names fans remember from Cleveland’s ’16 and ’17 postseason runs.
Although no longer with the team, let’s not forget about Ruben Niebla and his two stints as part of the Cleveland pitching factory.
Prior to him accepting the role as pitching coach for the San Diego Padres, he may have been the choice to succeed Willis. If you look at the recent successes of Padres pitching there is sort of a Cleveland stamp on it, with projects such as turning Michael King from reliever to starter, and reviving the career of Nick Pivetta, as well as sprouting equally dominant bullpen arms like Jeremiah Estrada and Robert Suarez.
The point being that Kluber learned from all three of these coaches at various points in his Cleveland tenure. Their success both in and outside of Clevleand speaks for itself, and Kluber who grew up in the system, and now has experience implementing it as a coach, would no doubt be prepared to keep moving things forward.
