John Farrell

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell watches a spring training baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays in Fort Myers, Fla., Friday, March 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

(Patrick Semansky)

BOSTON - Brian Bannister's role as director of pitching analytics for the Red Sox is diverse and yet all-encompassing.

The former major-league pitcher was promoted from a scouting position in the Red Sox organization to his current role last September. The Red Sox hope Bannister can pinpoint inefficiencies from an analytical and off-the-field perspective.

His role spans from monitoring minor-league pitchers to tracking college pitchers Boston might target for the upcoming MLB first-player draft.

But he also works with the major-league staff, too, and has been an important tool for pitching coach Carl Willis.

"There have been probably four or five occasions this year after games or the morning after I'll shoot him an email or a text and I'll say, 'Hey did you see anything with this particular pitcher last night? What did the data show?' Whether it be mechanically, pitch usage, whatever. He usually is getting back to me within a couple hours," Willis said, recalling one time Bannister already had an email drafted about a particular pitcher when Willis called seeking his opinion.

Willis acts as the conduit of information from Bannister. Some of the Red Sox starters, like David Price and Clay Buchholz, don't even know of Bannister's role with the team.

Willis contacted Bannister a few weeks ago about Buchholz.

"We were aware he was getting in some hitter friendly counts but when you just looked at the breakdown of his pitch usage and in particular that usage early in counts, we found a little something that was helpful and we saw it come to fruition (last week in Chicago)," Willis said.

Coaching a starter like Price, who's struggled this season but has a track record of success, is a little different.

"I think with David, and with all elite pitchers, there are subtle reminders or letting them know in a very subtle fashion something you're seeing and allow them to analyze it a little bit before you jump in and say, 'Ok so here's what you want to do,'" Willis said.

"You have to be careful jumping in and saying well, 'You need to do this,' because that may be a path they have already gone on and it wasn't the answer so there's a lot of trust that goes along," Willis said.

Bannister has a track record of finding areas that need to be tweaked with pitchers. He helped Rich Hill re-establish his major-league career with the Red Sox at the end of last season. Hill dominated down the stretch and ended up signing a one-year, $6 million deal with Oakland, less than six months removed from pitching in independent league baseball.

This year, he worked with Sean O'Sullivan, suggesting the righthander add a cutter to his repertoire which led to fewer walks and more strikeouts and an eventual start with the Red Sox on Tuesday night.

O'Sullivan had posted a 3.00 ERA with 32 strikeouts and five walks in five starts for Triple-A Pawtucket under the guidance of Bannister. On Tuesday, he held Oakland scoreless for five frames before the A's tagged him for four runs in the sixth. Though he allowed 12 hits, he walked none.

O'Sullivan pitched with Bannister while the two were in Kansas City in 2010.

"He'll text me after my starts and say, 'Hey your pitch mix is good or maybe increase your usage of this,'" O'Sullivan said after notching his first win with the Red Sox on Tuesday. "Because the cutter is a new pitch for me, I'm still working on it but he'll tell me throw it harder or throw it more to the side of the plate or things like that.

"The thing I like most about the whole thing is he's trying to help you elevate your strengths," O'Sullivan said of Bannister. "When I come out of those conversations I feel good about what I'm doing and so instead of like, 'Oh man I've got so much stuff to fix with this or that,' I can go into my next bullpen and scheduled start and attack a plan."

Rather than feel threatened or overwhelmed by Bannister's presence, Willis welcomes it. His philosophy is: the more information, the better.

"He's a tremendous resource and a lot of times, things that we see from the dugout, the data that he's able to give us, or the feedback he can give us, it's not that it just sometimes validates what we see but it gives us a better understanding of exactly what we're seeing," Willis said.

"He's made me very aware that he is there for me whenever I need anything," Willis added. "He's only a phone call away and I made him, hopefully, very comfortable that even if I don't ask or send an email or inquiry about something, that if he sees something, I want to know because at the end of the day our job collectively as a group is to help these guys. My title is pitching coach but I'm not the guy that thinks I know everything, so anyone else that has something to help I welcome that."

As a former pitching coach, manager John Farrell values Bannister's insight.

"The information that Brian produces is detailed, it's objective, it's black and white, not just someone's opinion," Farrell said.

"As pitchers get more familiar with what that information and what those numbers can provide, I think you'll see this be delved into more frequently than it is right now."

Follow MassLive.com Red Sox beat reporter @jcmccaffrey on Twitter. She can be reached by email at jmccaffr@masslive.com.