All-Time Indians: Matt Williams

Matt Williams played only one season in Cleveland, but it was a huge one in both in season results and roster development for years to come. By the time Williams came to Cleveland in 1997, he was already a super star. A four time All-Star during his ten years in San Francisco (starting in 1987), Williams had won three Silver Sluggers and three Gold Gloves at third base including 1993 and 1994 when he won both and finished in the top six in the NL MVP race.

Williams and the Giants signed one of the biggest contracts in MLB history in 1994 that saw him make an average above $6M per year for five seasons. With just two years left on that deal, the Giants traded the career player to Cleveland along with Trent Hubbard for Jeff Kent, Jose Vizcaino, Julian Tavarez and Joe Roa. While Vizcaino would play decently in 1997 and Tavarez would continue pitching out of the bullpen for more than another decade, this trade ultimately boiled down to Williams for Kent.

Kent had struggled in his short time in Cleveland in 1996 after coming over from New York and had never played particularly well before then either. After the trade, however, he would win an NL MVP, four Silver Sluggers and go to five All-Star games including three in his first five years in San Francisco.

At the same time, Williams would fill a huge hole for the Indians and ultimately be the more important player for the all important 1997 season. In 1996, the Indians played the poor defender, Jim Thome, at third base with Eddie Murray and Julio Franco taking the majority of the at bats at first base and DH. Murray was 40 in 1996, however, and was traded back to one of his former teams, the Angels, mid-season. Rather than resign Murray at the end of the year, the Indians solved two problems at once with the Williams trade. Thome moved to first, where his glove wouldn’t hurt the team and his bat would remain in the every day line-up and Williams moved to third, where he would win a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in 1997.

Initially, the move didn’t look perfect as Williams slumped for much of the first half, batting .225/.280/.447 through June 27th, but starting with a four hit, two home run game on the 28th, he hit .296/.329/.523 for the rest of the year with 17 home runs and 64 RBI. While the Indians held on to first in the Central from early June through the rest of the season, this second half run was huge for the Tribe as they came within 2.5 games of losing the lead at one point in September, but would ultimately win 86 games and finish six ahead of Chicago.

While they didn’t win as many games as 1995, the 1997 squad was arguably better than their previous World Series entrant and Williams was a big part of that. In the ALDS against the Yankees, Williams played in all five games and, while he hit only .235, it was his RBI single in the third inning of game five that would ultimately provide the difference and allow the Indians to move on to the ALCS for the second time ever. Similarly, in the ALCS Williams would play in all six games and knock in an integral run, this time in the seventh inning of game three that allowed the team to go to extra innings where Omar Vizquel would steal home to walk off against Baltimore.

In the World Series, Williams’ second after losing with the Giants in 1989, he would finally play as expected. Against the Marlins in seven games, Williams hit .385/.515/.538. While over his career he struck out 1,363 times to just 469 walks, in the World Series he walked seven times to six walks. He only hit one home run, but scored eight times on ten hits making him one of the Tribe’s top two offensive performers along with Sandy Alomar. As the Indians took the Marlins to seven games and extra innings after that, there was plenty of blame to go around for the ultimate loss, but none belonged to Williams.

A lot of things changed in baseball going into the 1998 season. The AL Central changed with the Brewers jumping to the National League to even out the leagues with the addition of two new teams, the Devil Rays in the AL and the Diamondbacks in the NL. This would also lead to the introduction of interleague play and an expansion draft. The first pick for the Diamondbacks in this draft (second overall) was Brian Anderson and the Indians would lose Albie Lopez and Herbert Perry to Tampa as well. Matt Williams would soon follow Anderson to the desert.

In an odd trade, with one year left on his contract, Williams was sent to Arizona for a new third baseman, Travis Fryman, as well as Tom Martin and $500,000. The Indians had initially asked for $3M to cover the contract of Williams, but Williams instead took a decrease in salary of $2.5M to make up the difference. Part of the deal, however, was another massive extension as he signed on for a five year, $45M deal.

Williams would end up playing out the final six years of his career in Arizona and there he would finally get his ring. Both Anderson and Williams would factor largely in the Diamondbacks 2001 World Series victory against the Yankees. This would be near the end of Williams’ career, however, as he retired after the 2003 season at the age of 37.

After a few years in the media world, Williams rejoined the Diamondbacks on the field in 2010 as a coach and he stayed there through 2013. Williams would be tabbed to head the solidly built Washington Nationals in 2014 where he proved to be the most old school of managers. He managed just two seasons there before being fired by the end of the 2015 season. In 2016, he rejoined the Diamondbacks as a coach, but the reunion was short as he was replaced going into the 2017 season.