The San Francisco Giants endured an up-and-down season but ultimately fell short of their goal of making the playoffs. And now change is coming.
Shortly after their season ended in an 81-81 record, the team announced that it had fired manager Bob Melvin.
“After careful evaluation, we determined that making a change in leadership was in the best interest of the team,” Giants president Buster Posey said in a statement, per ESPN. “The last couple of months have been both disappointing and frustrating for all of us, and we did not perform up to our standards. We now turn our focus to identifying a new leader to guide us forward.”
Now the team will be left to refocus around a new manager with hopes that their recent investments in veteran stars like Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers can pay off with some postseason success. But Melvin won’t be the only coach who is leaving San Francisco after the disappointment.
Third base coach Matt Williams who is also a former Giants All-Star will be leaving along with Melvin.
“Matt Williams tells me that he will not return to the Giants,” the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser reported.
Williams was drafted by the Giants in the third round in 1986 and went on to play 10 seasons with the team before moving on to the Cleveland Indians and then the Arizona Diamondbacks. During his playing tenure in San Francisco, he was a four-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger Award winner and three-time Gold Glove Award winner, mostly at third base with some shortstop mixed in.
Following his playing career, Williams served as the manager for the Washington Nationals, before managing in Korea, then joining the Arizona Diamondbacks as a first base coach and then the Oakland Athletics as a third base coach.
He later followed Melvin from the San Diego Padres’ coaching staff to the Giants and became the third base coach in San Francisco last year.
After informing Slusser that he would be following Melvin out of San Francisco, Williams could be looking for another coaching role elsewhere.
More MLB: Veteran American League Manager Fired After Epic Collapse
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