The exodus of officials leaving the Red Sox front office continued Saturday with the news that Justin Willard has agreed to become the New York Mets’ pitching coach, an industry source confirmed.
Willard, who was hired away from the Minnesota Twins by the Red Sox in November of 2023 as one of Craig Breslow’s first hires, spent the last two years overhauling Boston’s minor league pitching program.
On Willard’s watch, the team graduated a number of homegrown starting pitching prospects to the big leagues, including Hunter Dobbins, Payton Tolle and Connelly Early. By some measure, the majority of the organization’s Top 10 prospects are now starting pitching prospects, a big step forward after the team had failed to develop its own prospects for more than a decade.
While with the Red Sox, Willard split time between overseeing the minors while also contributing with the major league staff.
Willard replaces Jeremy Hefner in New York, one of several coaches on the major league staff who weren’t retained after the Mets endured a poor second half that left them out of the playoffs.
Willard had previously spent six seasons with the Twins, including three as their minor league pitching coordinator.
Earlier this offseason, the Red Sox lost assistant GM Paul Toboni to the Washington Nationals, who made him their president of baseball operations. Toboni then subsequently hired former Red Sox amateur scouting director Devin Pearson as an assistant GM with the Nats.
More recently, Toboni also hired former Red Sox minor league field coordinator Andrew Wright to serve in an unspecified player development role with the Nationals.
News of the Mets’ interest in Willard was first reported by The Athletic. The New York Post was the first to report his hiring.
