Matt Williams (third baseman)

Matthew Derrick Williams (born November 28, 1965), nicknamed "Matt the Bat" and "the Big Marine", is an American professional baseball manager and former third baseman. A right-handed batter, Williams played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, and Arizona Diamondbacks. He managed the Washington Nationals from 2014 to 2015, and was the third base coach for the San Diego Padres from 2022 to 2023 and the San Francisco Giants from 2024 to 2025.

Williams played in a World Series for each of the teams he played for (1989 with the Giants, 1997 with the Indians, and 2001 with the Diamondbacks in which he won over the New York Yankees). During these years, Williams became the only player to hit at least one World Series home run for three different Major League baseball teams. During his career, Williams had an overall batting average of .268, with 378 home runs and 1,218 runs batted in (RBI). He scored 997 Major League runs, and he accumulated 1,878 hits, 338 doubles, and 35 triples, while playing in 1,866 regular-season games.

Williams originally was selected by the New York Mets in the 27th round (664th overall) of the 1983 Major League Baseball draft from Carson High School in Carson City, Nevada, but he did not sign with the Mets. Williams was the starting quarterback on the Carson Senators football team in high school. Two of his teammates who played baseball in high school, Bob Ayrault and Charlie Kerfeld, also played baseball in the major leagues. During his senior year, Williams was named Nevada's high school player of the year.

Williams accepted a scholarship to play college baseball for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Williams played for the UNLV Rebels for three seasons between 1984 and 1986. In that time, he hit 58 home runs, tallied 217 RBI and had a batting average of .327. He was inducted into the school's athletics hall of fame in 1997.

Williams was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the first round (third overall) of the 1986 Major League Baseball draft. He made his professional debut that season, batting .240 with 14 doubles, four triples, eight home runs and 39 RBI in 72 games with the Low-A Everett Giants and Single-A Clinton Giants.

Williams was recalled to the majors for the first time on April 11, 1987, serving as an injury replacement for José Uribe. That day, he appeared in his first MLB game, going 1-for-3 in a 5–1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Williams' first major league hit was an eighth-inning single off Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser. He finished the season batting .188 with eight home runs and 21 RBI in 84 games. In the field, he primarily played shortstop while also playing some games at third base.

Prior to the 1989 season, Williams was named as the starting third baseman for the Giants. However, he struggled to begin the season with a .130 batting average, and was optioned to the Triple-A Phoenix Firebirds after the Giants' game on May 1. Williams considered this demotion as a turning point in his career, as he batted .320 with 26 home runs and 61 RBI in 76 games before returning to San Francisco in July. In 84 games with the Giants, Williams hit .202, but managed to record 18 home runs and 50 RBI.