Mac Williamson

Career

Williamson attended Wake Forest-Rolesville High School in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He played for the school's baseball team as a pitcher, and was rated the best pitching prospect in the state of North Carolina. He chose to enroll at Wake Forest University to play college baseball for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. He redshirted as a freshman, and played for Wake Forest as an outfielder. The Boston Red Sox chose Williamson in the 46th round of the 2011 MLB Draft, but he decided to return to Wake Forest for his senior year.

2012–14

In the 2012 MLB Draft, the San Francisco Giants selected Williamson in the third round, with the 115th overall selection. He signed with the Giants, beginning his professional career in the Rookie-level Arizona League, hitting two home runs in 19 plate appearances. The Giants then promoted Williamson to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Class A-Short Season Northwest League, where he hit seven home runs in 125 plate appearances.

In 2013, the Giants assigned Williamson to the San Jose Giants of the Class A-Advanced California League. He hit 25 home runs for San Jose.

He was invited to his first spring training in 2014. Though the Giants wanted to assign Williamson to the Richmond Flying Squirrels of the Class AA Eastern League to start the 2014 season, an elbow injury led them to keep him in San Jose, where he could still play as a designated hitter. After beginning the season with a .318 batting average and three home runs, Williamson went on the disabled list with a torn ulnar collateral ligament of the elbow and had Tommy John surgery, ending his 2014 season.

2015

He began the 2015 season with Richmond and the Giants promoted him to the Sacramento River Cats of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League in June. The Giants promoted Williamson to the major leagues on September 16, 2015. He made his debut with the Giants on September 23. He made his first major league start in right field on September 25, 2015, and got his first major league hit off Sonny Gray of the Oakland Athletics.

2016

Williamson began the 2016 season with Sacramento, and received a promotion to the major leagues on April 15, but was sent back to the minors a week later. On June 2, Williamson was called up after Hunter Pence suffered an injury. On June 8, 2016, Williamson hit his first major league home run off David Price of the Boston Red Sox, a tie-breaking shot in the bottom of the eighth inning.

2017

During spring training, Williamson was in competition for the left field job, competing against other outfielders. He suffered an injury towards the end of spring training, which would cause him to miss opening day.