David Price, Carl Willis

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher David Price, back right, stands in the dugout alongside pitching coach Carl Willis in the fourth inning of a spring training baseball game in Fort Myers, Fla., Thursday, March 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

(Patrick Semansky)

CHICAGO - A year ago this weekend, Carl Willis was in Triple-A Columbus contemplating a move that would make him the Red Sox pitching coach.

Boston fired former pitching coach Juan Nieves last May 7 and the Red Sox had targeted Willis, who had previously worked with manager John Farrell, as his replacement.

Needless to say, Willis made the move, meeting the team in the middle of a series in Toronto. At the time, the team was 13-17, having lost seven of eight.

Though he took the job willingly, to say Willis entered the job blindfolded wouldn't be much of an exaggeration.

The rotation posted a major-league worst 5.75 ERA by late April and Willis was tasked with fixing it all on the fly.

The improvements were slow as he learned the intracacies of the staff. Willis leaned on Farrell, as manager but also as a former pitching coach, to bring him up to speed on the 12 pitchers under his guidance.

"I would say at the beginning last year that was probably more of a difficult thing," Willis said this past week in Chicago, reflecting on his one-year anniversary with the team. "I leaned on John a lot, asking him, particularly about the bullpen, can guys execute certain pitches in this amount of time. Why do we only use this particular guy in this particular role? He's proven he isn't best suited for that role. We thought so at one time but it didn't work out. So there was a lot of history I didn't have."

But by the end of the season, there were tangible improvements. In the rotation, Rick Porcello and Joe Kelly, who had both struggled mightily in the first half, were getting back on track after trips to the disabled list and adjustments suggested. Lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez made tremendous strides in his rookie season.

Even in the bullpen, reliever Matt Barnes started to come into his own in the final month under the tutelage of Willis.

The 55-year-old had a wealth of experience as pitching coach upon taking the job in Boston with stops in Cleveland, where he coached Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia in their prime, and Seattle, where he worked with Felix Hernandez.

Willis' method of communication and disemination of information with the staff clicked.

"I think that's a reflection of the person he is," manager John Farrell told MassLive.com. "He's shown the ability to form and develop and foster relationships with every guy regardless of where they hail from or the different personalities that are here. Because of that I think guys feel his genuineness, he cares about them. He's with them every pitch of the way and in addition, he's got such a credible message for the amount of time he's spent, the high level and elite pitchers he's dealt with over the course of his career so he's been a great resource here and he has, I don't want to say blended right in, but he's come in and he's made an impact."

Though he's been with the team since last May, he's still learning. There was little time in the middle of last season, especially once Farrell left the team in August to battle cancer, for Willis to stop and assess situations or better approaches in between starts for a certain pitcher.

This past spring training provided a reset button of sorts. It provided opportunity to try some things that weren't feasible to experiment with during the season.

"Spring training is so important, a time for a new pitching coach to make connections with the guys and build those relationships in a little bit less of an intense type of situation particularly when the games are going on," Willis said. "So it was helpful even after having been here for five months during the season last year to have spring training with the guys. It wasn't like starting from scratch because we had gotten to know one another during the season last year. They got to know my personality and I was able to learn theirs as well individually."

It's not as though it's been smooth sailing the entire time. The rotation struggled posting a 7.32 ERA after the first two weeks of the season. But Red Sox starters have since started to turn the tide, with a 3.11 ERA in their last 10 games.

Farrell and Willis had worked together in Cleveland from 2003 to 2006 when their time overlapped with Willis as the Indians pitching coach and Farrell as the Indians director of player development.

Their relationship and respect for one another has allowed them to tackle tough decisions with the rotation and bullpen.

"It's helped from a personal level that we've had a working relationship in the past, so we're able to have candid conversations," Farrell said. "We can challenge one another about individual situations. We can be objective about it and sometimes have some challenging conversations about an individual or situation and it comes from the right place. It's not from a personal place."

Farrell credits Willis with the emergence of some of the team's younger power arms in the bullpen. The Red Sox traded for Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith, but the reliability of Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree has been equally as important.

"Familiarity is certainly going to go a long way and as he's had a hand in and a direct impact in some of the development when we're talking about the bullpen, whether it's Heath Hembree or Matt Barnes and their evolvement," Farrell said.

Willis' approval rating naturally ebs and flows with the success (or failure) of the pitching staff.

In 160 games with the Red Sox (including 132 last season), Red Sox pitchers have posted a 4.25 ERA. In 2014 under Nieves, the team had a 4.01 ERA.

"There's a tremeondous amount of expectation, a tremendous amount of passion," he said. "And from my vantage point that's what you want. I want that."

The pressure to keep the pitching staff in check is certainly there. There will be peaks and valleys. Through one year on the job, Willis has nearly experienced it all.

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