William F. Yurasko

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MATTITUDE! Matt Williams expected to be named Nats manager

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wfyurasko

The buzz has been building for a while that Arizona Diamondbacks third base coach Matt Williams will be named the fifth permanent manager of the Washington Nationals. That looks to be the case:

After Rosenthal broke that, the Post put this together: Nationals to hire Matt Williams as manager (updated)

The official announcement should be after the World Series.

Seemingly the in-house favorite, Randy Knorr, may be retained as bench coach which is potentially weird. I can’t decide whether it’s great he wants to stick around or if it’s sad he will stick around if he’s not the choice.

Williams has managed in the Arizona Fall League and been a third base coach. He was a slugger who apparently used HGH late in his career. He’s a firery personality, but he’s mellowed as he’s aged and players love him. I most remember him from when he was with the San Francisco Giants and was hitting a lot of homers in 1994. After the strike, Sports Illustrated wrote a story about the improbable last two months of the season – the Chicago Cubs beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series and Williams continued his chase on Roger Maris single season home run record. I remember a fake cover of Williams in that story. His grandfather, Bert Griffith, briefly played for the 1924 Washington Senators too, but was traded in July of that season.

D.C. media is probably heartbroken their preferred candidate wasn’t even interviewed. One radio host was going to discuss with fans whether they were disappointed that Baltimore player wasn’t the choice. Really. Sports radio is a sad salvation.

Oh and if you care about what the former manager thinks:

I wonder if the Post will have two columns on this hiring either tomorrow or the official announcement.