Matt Williams

Matt Williams combined power with precision during his 17-year career in major league baseball. An All-Star third baseman, Williams hit 20 or more home runs for 10 consecutive seasons, winning four Silver Slugger awards. Defensively, he was a smooth fielder displaying a wide range and an accurate throwing arm, winning four Gold Glove awards.

His teammates and coaches used terms such as loyal, professional, intense, hard-working, and leader to define his character. Although Williams was prone to long batting slumps and a high number of strikeouts, he was a popular player in the clubhouse and with the fan base. Matt Williams was everything a big-league player should be.

In 2007, Williams was listed on the Mitchell Report as a player who had used performance-enhancing drugs or steroids. His clean-cut reputation took a hit, as did those of many of the players who were singled out. Williams has worked hard to restore his image. After he retired as a player in 2003, Williams worked in the Arizona Diamondbacks front office for several years, before embarking on a long coaching and managing career. Through it all, Williams has remained a model parent and person, living up to his motto of “father first, baseball second.”       

Matthew Derrick Williams was born on November 28, 1965, in Bishop, California,  the youngest of four sons (after Kelly, Art and Bart) born to Arthur and Sarah (née Griffith) Williams. Arthur Williams, who was blind in his right eye, made his living as a carpenter.

Athletic ability was prevalent in the Wiliams family. Matt’s grandfather, Bert Griffith, was an outfielder for three seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1922-23) and the Washington Senators (1924). Arthur was a superb softball pitcher and Sarah excelled in tennis. All four sons participated in various sports in their formative years. “How he could fast-pitch with one eye, I don’t know – but he did,” Matt said, referring to his father.1

Arthur Williams said that he pushed his oldest son, Kelly, hard to become a ball player – but later tried a different tack. “By the time Matt came along, I didn’t do that at all,” said Arthur. “I just let him go and he had a natural love for the game. We moved to Carson City his last season of Little League, and it turned out to be the best thing we ever did because they have a tremendous baseball program.”2   

Williams was a starting quarterback on the Carson High School football team in his sophomore and junior seasons. “Matt got so involved with baseball (American Legion) that summer he missed our summer program his senior year so I had someone else start at quarterback,” said football coach Carl Vinci. “Matt ended up playing 10 or 12 positions his senior year. Wherever I needed him, he could play and I knew he would do a good job. He was a great leader; the guys loved being around him.”3    

Nicknamed the “Carson Crusher,” Williams was the starting third baseman for the Senators. He was named the Northern AAA Player of the Year after his junior and senior seasons.

After high school graduation in 1983, Williams was selected by the New York Mets in the 27th round of the free agent draft. However, Williams chose to attend college at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas. One reason Williams chose the Rebels was because Coach Fred Dallimore promised to start him as a freshman.4

Dallimore moved Wiliams to shortstop, a position he had never played. However, Williams made the transition with little difficulty. Offensively, Wiliams was a power-hitting machine. The right-handed slugger played three seasons and 187 games at UNLV, recording 58 home runs and 217 RBIs while batting .327. Following his senior year, Williams was named first team All-American.

The San Francisco Giants selected Williams with the third overall pick of the free agent draft on June 2, 1986. Initially, the Giants’ plan was to keep Williams at shortstop. But a shift to third base was not out of the question. Williams admitted that he needed to work on ground balls hit to his right, although if the Giants moved him to third base, he would not have to cover as much ground in that direction. As for hitting, Williams shifted from using an aluminum bat to a wooden one. “I’ve been working out with a wooden bat since I was drafted,” said Williams. “I think if you hit the ball well, there’s not much difference. But, if you get jammed, you don’t get the cheap dink over the infield that you get with an aluminum bat.”5

Williams started his professional career at Everett (Washington) of the short-season Northwest League. Williams, who was 6-foot-2, drew comparisons to Cal Ripken of Baltimore. The  6-foot-4 Orioles shortstop was also known to hit with power. “That’s a compliment right there, being compared to Cal Ripken because he’s a great player,” said Wiliams. “But right now, I’ve got a lot of learning to do and a lot of things to work on. I need to work on every aspect of my hitting.”6  

Williams played only four games at Everett. He capped his stay in the Northwest with a grand slam and six RBIs in one game, leading Everett to an 18-13 win over Spokane.7

Williams headed to Clinton (Iowa) of the Class A Midwest League to finish out the year. In 68 games, 57 as the starting shortstop, Williams batted .240 with seven home runs and 29 RBIs.

The Giants sent Williams to AAA Phoenix at the start of the 1987 season. When starting shortstop José Uribe was sidelined with a hamstring injury on April 10, Williams was called up, making his major-league debut the next day at Dodger Stadium.

On July 4, 1987, Williams and his .192 batting average were demoted to Phoenix. “I didn’t hit the ball away real well, so they kept hitting my weak spot,” said Wiliams, “throwing me curveballs away, fastballs away, sliders away. Everything was away. So I have to come down here and work on that. As soon as I can master that, I think I’ll be able to be competitive in the big leagues.”8

San Francisco recalled Williams in September. He alternated between shortstop and third base as the Giants (90–72 record), won the NL West for the first time since 1971. They were eliminated in the NLCS by the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

The next two seasons were more of the same. Williams was sent to Phoenix for more seasoning. “We did things out of dire necessity, and were not in his best interests,” said Al Rosen, the Giants general manager. “Because Matt has a great makeup and tremendous determination, he was able to handle it. I’m not proud of the way we handled him.”9     

The 1989 season was a breakout for Williams, both at Phoenix and San Francisco. After beginning the season with the Giants, he was sent down to Phoenix on May 2. In 76 games, he batted .320 with 26 home runs and 61 RBIs for the Firebirds. Williams returned to the Giants in late July.

On August 11, at Candlestick Park, Williams drove in a career-high six runs as he hit two home runs, one a grand slam, in a 10-2 rout of Los Angeles. He finished the season with 18 home runs and 50 RBIs for the Giants. San Francisco manager Roger Craig started to use Williams more at third base, penciling him into the starting lineup for 62 games. “It’s nice to see Matt swinging the bat like that,” said Craig. “He’s hitting the ball hard. This is the potential I always knew he had; now it’s surfacing. Matt is going to get better and better.”10

Williams was finding footing not only in his career but also in his personal life. During the All-Star break, on July 10, Williams, bypassed the PCL All-Star Game to marry the former Tracie Ann Duncan in Carson City.11 They had met while he was playing baseball in Phoenix. Matt and Tracy had three children: daughters Alysha and Rachael and son Jacob.

The Giants (92-70) captured the NL West again in 1989. Williams got his first taste of the postseason. He hit two home runs and drove in nine in the NLCS as San Francisco disposed of the Chicago Cubs in five games. However, the Giants were swept in four games by the Oakland A’s in the World Series. The bigger story of the series was the earthquake that hit the Bay Area before Game Three. On October 17, 1989, the game was just about to begin when an earthquake shook Candlestick Park. The series was delayed 10 days and resumed on October 27.  

Craig installed Williams as the Giants’ starting third baseman for the 1990 season. He responded by swatting 33 home runs and led the NL in RBIs with 122. Williams was selected to his first All-Star Game, played at Wrigley Field on July 10, 1990. He entered the game as a pinch-hitter for pitcher John Franco in the bottom of the ninth inning and struck out. He was awarded his first Silver Slugger Award for hitting the most home runs of all third basemen in the NL.

The Giants finished with an 85-77 record in 1990, landing in third place, six games behind division-winner Cincinnati (91–71).

Williams won his first Gold Glove Award in 1991, fielding his position at a .964 clip. Offensively, he clubbed 34 home runs while driving in 98, but the Giants (75-87) fell to fourth place.

In 1992, the Giants (70-92) sank lower in the standings. Part of the reason may have been that the franchise was up for sale. It seemed as if the Giants would be moving to St. Petersburg, Florida. But a last-minute deal with local investors kept the Giants in the Bay Area. The change in ownership also brought new personnel. Bob Quinn replaced Rosen as general manager and Dusty Baker relieved Craig as manager.  

On December 8, 1992, the Giants signed free agent Barry Bonds. San Francisco had drafted Bonds in 1982. Instead, he chose to attend Arizona State University. Now, he was returning to the same franchise after building an All-Star career in Pittsburgh for seven seasons. Batting ahead of Bonds in the Giants’ order, Williams nearly doubled his home run total from the previous season, going from 20 home runs in 1992 to 38 in 1993, third in the league. Bonds led the league in home runs (46) and RBIs (123), while Williams drove in 110 runs. Together with Will Clark, Robby Thompson, and Royce Clayton, the Giants had a solid lineup which finished second in the NL in runs scored.

On September 15, the Giants (89–56) trailed first-place Atlanta (93-53) by 3½ games, San Francisco won 14 of 17 games to close out the season – but Atlanta went 11-5 and held off the Giants to win the division by one game.

The 1994 season brought about two major changes to major-league baseball. The first was division realignment. Each league would be composed of three divisions: East, West, and Central. The NL West included San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and the expansion Colorado Rockies. The first change segued into the second: a new playoff format. Three division winners and a wild card team in each league expanded the postseason and doubled the number of eligible teams. It was an alignment identical to what the National Football League had implemented in 1970.

However, the new format would have to wait, as play shut down on August 12. A players’ strike canceled the rest of the season and the World Series and carried over to 1995. Williams was especially stung by the strike. He had hit 43 home runs and was on pace to break the home run record of 61 for a season set by Roger Maris in 1961. But it was not to be.

The real losers, of course, were the fans. “I used to root for Jeff Bagwell to set a new RBI record and Matt Williams to set a new home run record. Now, I just root for baseball to set a new strike record,” wrote Jesse Gogo of Rialto, California in The Sporting News.12    

Because of the strike, teams did not begin regular-season play in 1995 until April 26, with a 144-game schedule. Williams fouled a pitch off his right foot in a game against Philadelphia on June 3, breaking a bone. As a result, he missed almost half the season.

San Francisco finished in last place in 1995 and 1996. To shake things up, and to ease financial constraints, the Giants traded Williams and a player to be named later (outfielder Trenidad Hubbard) to Cleveland on November 13, 1996. In return, the Giants received infielders Jeff Kent, José Vizcaino, pitcher Julian Tavarez and a player to be named later (pitcher Joe Roa). Slugger Albert Belle left the Indians via free agency and the club was looking for a big bat in the middle of its lineup.

“In our view, this is an old-time baseball deal,” said new Giants general manager Brian Sabean. “We gave them a four-time All-Star, and we are really excited about the return…It’s a rarity in this day and age where you make something this good and both teams feel good.”13  

If the trade was a shock to Williams, it was nothing compared to the news that Tracie was filing for divorce. Williams, who put his family first, above all else, was now in a new city and a new league, without his children. “He is a very family-oriented person,” said Indians manager Mike Hargrove. “You see him with his kids, and his eyes light up and it’s real obvious he adores them. I would have to imagine it would be extremely difficult to come into a new league and then be getting a divorce in the middle of it all.”14     

Williams struggled at first but did set a career-high with a three-home run game on April 25, 1997, at Milwaukee. The Indians, like the Giants, had a potent lineup in 1997 with Jim Thome, David Justice, Sandy Alomar Jr., Manny Ramirez and Williams.

Williams smacked 32 home runs and drove in 105 while batting .263 for the Tribe in 1997. He won his fourth Gold Glove Award, making him the first third baseman and one of only three in MLB history to be awarded a Gold Glove in each league (Robin Ventura and Matt Chapman followed). He also received his fourth Silver Slugger Award, becoming the first and so far, the only third baseman to be so honored in both leagues.

Cleveland won the American League Central for the third year in a row and captured its second pennant in three seasons. However, despite Williams’ efforts (.385 with a homer), it lost the World Series in seven games to the Florida Marlins.

After the season, Williams requested a trade so that he would be closer to his children. Cleveland GM John Hart, after much discussion with various teams, was able to work out a deal. On December 1, 1997, Cleveland sent Williams to the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks for third baseman Travis Fryman and pitcher Tom Martin. “The way I presented it to the Indians was that it was a life decision, not a baseball decision. And they understood,” said Wiliams. “If it was strictly a baseball decision, I would have never left. Cleveland is a tremendous place to play, and they have a fantastic team. But nothing, including baseball, is more important to me than my kids.”15

Williams returned to familiar territory, as the Diamondbacks were placed in the NL West. Like most expansion teams, Arizona (65–97) struggled and finished in last place in 1998. A stress fracture in his left foot, combined with a stiff back and nagging injuries to his wrists and hands, limited Williams to 135 games. Also, without the big boppers surrounding him in the lineup, Williams’ numbers sagged. He tied for second on the team in home runs with Jay Bell (20) and drove in 71 runs.

On January 15, 1999, Williams married actress Michelle Johnson.

The Diamondbacks made four moves that changed them from expansion team to contender. They acquired outfielders Luis González and Tony Womack in separate trades. Arizona also signed free agent outfielder Steve Finley and pitcher Randy Johnson.

Womack led the NL in stolen bases with 72. Gonzalez was tops in hits with 206. Johnson led all pitchers in strikeouts (364) and ERA (2.48). Finley smashed 34 home runs and collected 103 RBIs. Johnson singled out Williams’ intensity and the team’s thirst for success as the reasons he signed on with the Diamondbacks. “I really get into the game,” said Williams. “I take it very seriously. I’ve worked very hard to be successful. Sometimes I don’t think the public realizes how hard we work, how much time and effort goes into it.”16    

Williams bounced back to have a superb season. He smacked 35 home runs and set a club record in RBIs with 142. Arizona (100-62) went from worst to first in the NL West, easily outdistancing second-place San Francisco (86-76) by 14 games. Their dream season ended when the New York Mets defeated them in the NLDS in four games.

Over the next three seasons, various injuries curtailed Williams’ playing time. In 2000, a broken right foot kept him out of action until late May. A right quadriceps strain sidelined him for a few more games. In 2001, he suffered tears in his left hamstring and left quadriceps that removed him from the Diamondbacks lineup for two months. In 2002, a broken left leg and dislocated left ankle kept him out of action until after the All-Star break.

In 2001, the Diamondbacks (92-70) edged the Giants (90-72) by two games and were crowned champions of the NL West. Williams hit 16 home runs and collected 65 RBIs in his abbreviated season. Arizona rode the performance of 20-game winners Johnson (21-6) and Curt Schilling (22-6), to the postseason.

The D-backs knocked off St. Louis in the NLDS and toppled Atlanta in the NLCS to reach their first World Series. Their opponent was the New York Yankees, who were making their 38th appearance in the Fall Classic and going for their fourth straight world championship.

In a classic Game Seven, the Diamondbacks scored two runs (one unearned) off of ace reliever Mariano Rivera for a 3-2 series-clinching win. Johnson pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief to get the win. Bell crossed home plate with the winning run off a single to center by Gonzales. Waiting for him at home plate was Williams. “If I was going to score the winning run, Matty had to be the first guy there,”17 said Bell about his teammate on that first Diamondbacks squad in 1998.

Williams batted .269 in the series. He hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game Two off Andy Pettitte to lead the Diamondbacks to a 4-0 victory. “I’m a huge Matt Williams fan,” said Arizona manager Bob Brenly. “There were a lot of people through the course of the season who were ready to give up on him, but I was never one of them.”18

Williams played his last game on May 31, 2003. Following the game, Arizona designated him for assignment19. After considering his options, he retired as an active player, aged 37. “I’ll say it again, I’m a father first,” said Williams. “Baseball certainly is a big part of my life and has given me a lot. I think I gave back a lot with a lot of desire.

“But my kids are ages 13, 12, and 10, and I’ve been a baseball player and missed a lot of their time. It’s more important to be present with them.”20

In 17 seasons and exactly 7,000 at-bats. Williams finished his career with a .268 batting average. He hit 378 home runs and drove in 1,218 runs. A free swinger, his lifetime on-base percentage was .317, but he struck out in just 18% of his plate appearances – quite moderate by today’s standards,

Williams and Michelle Johnson divorced in 2002. He remarried, to newscaster Erika Monroe, in 2003. They had one daughter, Madison.

In 2005, Williams joined the Arizona front office. His title was Special Assistant, but he wore many hats. Williams was a part-time coach under Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin. He appeared at community events and provided color commentary on Arizona games for radio and TV.

In 2007, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell published the Mitchell Report, the product of a 20-month investigation into major-league players using performance-enhancing drugs and steroids. The report listed Williams as purchasing human growth hormone to help in the recovery of his dislocated ankle in 2002. It was published in the San Francisco Chronicle that Williams had paid $11,000 for the HGH products. “The other side of that coin is, you still have to hit the ball out of the ballpark,” said Williams. “You still have to hit the ball properly. If you put some foreign substance in your body, you don’t all of a sudden learn how to hit homers.”21  

From 2010 through 2013, Williams joined the coaching staff of A.J. Hinch and then Kirk Gibson in Arizona. On October 25, 2013, Williams was named the manager of the Washington Nationals. He guided the Nats to a 96-66 record in 2014, finishing in first place in the NL East. They were eliminated by San Francisco in the NLDS. Williams was named Manager of the Year by The Sporting News and the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Williams was fired following the 2015 season. The Nationals had slipped to an 83-79 record, seven games behind the first-place New York Mets. “We had some things that went sideways and we had a whole bunch of injuries,” said Williams,” and there’s not much you can do about that except adjust and move on.”22     

In 2016, Williams joined Chip Hale’s staff in Arizona as the third base coach. He was dismissed after the season. In 2018 he reunited with Melvin and was the Oakland A’s third base coach for two seasons. In 2020 and 2021, Williams managed the Kia Tigers of the KBO League in Korea.

Williams returned to the major leagues in 2022, joining Melvin’s staff in San Diego. On March 31, 2023, it was discovered that Williams had colon cancer. He underwent treatment, missing part of the season.

As of 2025, Williams was in his second season with the San Francisco Giants as their third base coach. For the fourth time, he was a member of Melvin’s staff.

Matt Williams succeeded at every step in his journey through baseball. For years as a coach and manager, he lent his knowledge to those coming up behind him and demonstrated leadership as both a player and coach. The respect Williams earned was evident in 2024 when Matt Chapman, who had played in Oakland when Williams was on the coaching staff, signed as a free agent with San Francisco, reuniting him with Williams.

“Matt Williams is definitely someone who helped me out so much in 2018 and 2019 when he was in Oakland,” said Chapman. “Just from a guy who’s been in my shoes, somebody who’s done it. We have a lot of similarities.”23 

Last revised: April 13, 2025

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and David Bilmes and fact-checked by Ray Danner.

Sources

In addition to the sources used in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 Thomas Boswell, “Could grandson follow grandfather to the World Series?” Washington Post, February 24, 2015.

2 Deron Snyder, “His numbers are truly Giant, but Matt Williams’ reputation is not…yet,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, May 18-24, 1994: 9.

3 Greg Bartolin, “The kid from Carson sure has a Giant future,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 1, 1989: 14D.

4 Bartolin, “The kid from Carson sure has a Giant future.”

5 Dan McGrath, “A New Element for Giants’ Top Pick,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 17, 1986: 45.

6 Vince Bruun, “Giants’ top draftee says he’s no Ripken…yet,” Daily Herald, June 22, 1986: 3D.

7 Vince Bruun, “Giants show lots of hitting,” Daily Herald, June 23, 1986: 1D.

8 Don Williams, “Birds give Williams outside chance to improve on obvious weakness,” Arizona Republic, July 11, 1987: G3. 

9 Larry Stone, “Giants’ fiery Matt Williams is starting to perfect his impersonation of Mike Schmidt,” The Sporting News 1991 Baseball Yearbook: 33.  

10 Tony Cooper, “Williams’ Big Night; Slam, Two-Run Homer,” San Francisco Chronicle,” August 12, 1989: 4D.   

11 Ancestory.com, Nevada, Marriage Index. Accessed February 25, 2025.

12 “Voice of the Fan,” The Sporting News, September 5, 1994: 9.

13 David Bush, “Giants Dump Williams,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 14, 1996: E5.

14 Tim Wendel, “Playing through pain,” USA Today Baseball Weekly, September 24-30, 1997: 22-23.

15 Chuck Johnson, “Diamondbacks’ Williams driven to be near his kids,” USA Today, March 3, 1998.

16 Don Ketchum, “Happy home, prolific work,” Arizona Republic, June 6, 1999: BX4.

17 Mark Gonzales, “Gonzo’s hit caps comeback,” Arizona Republic, November 5, 2001: C3.

18 “7 games for the glory,” Arizona Republic, November 7, 2001:  EX12.

19 Mark Gonzales, “Williams out; 1 move to go,” Arizona Republic, June 1, 2003: C2.

20 Mark Gonzales, “’A father first,’ Williams retires after 17 years,” Arizona Republic, June 13, 2003: C1.

21 Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams, “Baseball’s Drug Scandal Widens,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 6, 2007: A10.

22 ESPN.com, October 5, 2015, Williams HOF Clip file Baseball Hall of Fame.

23 Taylor Wirth, “Chapman eager to reunite with mentor, new Giants coach Matt Williams,” NBCSportsBayArea.com, March 8, 2024. Giants’ Matt Chapman eager to reunite with former mentor Matt Williams – NBC Sports Bay Area & California.  (Accessed March 5, 2025).