MIAMI (August 9, 2019) – With fall ball on the horizon for FIU, Head Coach Mervyl Melendez announced on Friday that Willie Collazo has been named the Panthers’ pitching coach.
Collazo, a FIU graduate, will don the Blue & Gold once again after spending the last six seasons as a pitching coach in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, most recently as the pitching coach of the Lansing Lugnuts in 2017.
“Willie brings a wealth of knowledge that will help continue to build a mature pitching staff,” Melendez said. “He was the best recruit we signed this season.”
As a player for FIU from 2000-01, Collazo won 20 games including 13 in the 2001 campaign that saw the Panthers reach the program’s first NCAA Super Regional. By the time Collazo was drafted in the 10th round of the 2001 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves, the lefty ranked Top 10 in most pitching categories for FIU.
Collazo, a Carolina, Puerto Rico native, became the eighth former Panther to make his MLB debut on Sept. 5, 2007 for the New York Mets, pitching a scoreless 1.2 innings against the Cincinnati Reds.
Following elbow surgery in 2012, Collazo was named player-coach for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays and was later promoted to pitching coach in 2014 before being named the pitching coach of the Short Season-A Vancouver Canadians in 2016.
Additionally, Collazo helped the Tigres de Aragua win the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League World Series in 2015 as the pitching coach. In 2014 his Aguilas del Zulia led the league in ERA and WHIP.
