KBO: Matt Williams landed a managerial job somehow

Matt Williams has a managerial gig for the first time since derailing the Washington Nationals train, though he had to cross the ocean to land it.

Matt Williams the person, I’m sure he’s a nice guy. Matt Williams the player, he’s the man. Matt Williams the manager. Well, Meat Loaf sang Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad and that’s fitting here.

After spending a couple of years as a coach for the Oakland A’s, Williams has a team of his own again in the KIA Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization. The fact any team is trusting him with the keys to the car after he wrecked the Washington Nationals Porsche is shocking.

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Williams showed his managerial prowess, or lack thereof, in two years at the helm of the Nationals. On his resume, he has a division title, Manager of the Year Award, and two winning seasons which add up to a .552 winning percentage, yet he was fired with a year remaining on his contract.

The 2014 version of the Washington Nationals could have won the division without a manager, on the premises the NL East was terrible (the Nats were the only team to finish with a winning record) and the line up was extremely balanced.

The Nationals were defeated three games to one in the National League Division Series by the San Francisco Giants and much of the blame fell on Williams’s shoulders. The old adage is players don’t lose close games, managers do. The Nats lost three one-run games including Game 2 when Williams pulled Jordan Zimmerman in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game with one out to go only to see reliever Drew Storen give up the lead. Zimmerman had scattered three hits and was only at 100 pitches at the time he was removed.

The following year the Nationals added Max Scherzer to an already loaded pitching rotation and young phenom Bryce Harper won the MVP. Yet with the most talented team in the Majors, Williams lost the clubhouse and lost his mind.

There was the Jonathan Papelbon choking Harper madness, where Willaims benched Harper and sent Papelbon in to pitch the inning after throttling the league’s best player. There was the constant mismanagement of the bullpen. There was the fact Williams didn’t talk to any players in the clubhouse, which was deemed a “terrible environment”. The improprieties go on and on.

None of these revelations deterred KIA and they made Williams the third American to manage a South Korean team. I am surprised to see Williams at the helm of a professional baseball club again, though I wish nothing but the best for him in his new gig.