Giants land free-agent shortstop Willy Adames: reports

Justice delos Santos, Bay Area News Group on Dec 7, 2024

Published in Baseball

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On the eve of his first winter meetings, Buster Posey has made his first splash as the Giants president of baseball operations.

The Giants have agreed with free-agent shortstop Willy Adames on a seven-year, $182 million contract — the largest in franchise history — pending a physical, according to multiple reports.

The Giants’ previous record deal, coincidentally enough, belonged to Posey ($167 million).

Adames, 29, is coming off his best season in the majors, posting career highs in homers (32), RBIs (112), steals (21) and WAR (4.8, according to FanGraphs). He’ll play alongside Matt Chapman, who signed a six-year, $151 million extension last September, on the left side of San Francisco’s infield for years to come.

Over seven seasons with the Rays and Brewers, Adames owns a career .248 batting average and .766 OPS with 150 home runs and 472 RBIs.

Adames hasn’t won a Gold Glove Award but has been one of baseball’s better defenders at shortstop. He rated poorly last season (-16 defensive runs saved) but has totaled 20 defensive runs saved and 14 outs above average from 2018-23.

The signing of Adames gives the Giants a rough blueprint for the lineup they will roll out on opening day. Along with Adames at short and Chapman at third, Tyler Fitzgerald will likely slide over to second base and neighbor LaMonte Wade Jr. at first base.

Patrick Bailey, a first-time Gold Glove Award winner, will assume the role of catcher while Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee and Mike Yastrzemski roam the outfield.

Since the recently-retired Brandon Crawford finished fourth in NL MVP voting in 2021, the Giants haven’t received consistent production from their shortstops. From 2022-24, San Francisco had 13 players spend time at shortstop: Crawford, Fitzgerald, Marco Luciano, Thairo Estrada, Brett Wisely, Nick Ahmed, Mauricio Dubón, Paul DeJong, Casey Schmitt, Dixon Machado, Jason Vosler, Johan Camargo and Donovan Walton. That group has collectively totaled 7.1 WAR, per FanGraphs, a mark that ranks 20th in the league.

The Giants attempted to address the position at the 2022 winter meetings, agreeing with shortstop Carlos Correa on a 13-year, $350 million contract. That deal never came to fruition due to San Francisco’s concerns over Correa’s physical, leading to Correa — eventually — re-signing with the Twins.

Luciano entered last spring as the Giants’ shortstop of the future, but following a rocky rookie season where he oscillated between the majors and minors, Luciano is headed to the outfield. Fitzgerald emerged as San Francisco’s starting shortstop last season, hitting .280 with 15 homers and 17 steals, but graded out poorly as a defender (-6 defensive runs saved). Along with a sub-par glove, Fitzgerald’s batted-ball profile (22nd percentile of average exit velocity) and propensity to strike out (31.7% strikeout rate) raise concerns.

With shortstop addressed, the Giants’ brass can turn its collective attention to the starting rotation as the winter meetings begin.

As things stand, San Francisco’s rotation features Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong with Landen Roupp, Mason Black and Keaton Winn in the mix. Blake Snell parlayed his one season with the Giants into a five-year, $182 million deal with the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

San Francisco’s rotation, for all of its preseason hype, finished 18th in ERA (4.22), 23rd in WAR (9.4) and 29th in innings (778 2/3). If the Giants are to have any chance of making the playoffs as a wild card — the division will likely remain the Dodgers’ domain — Posey and company need to beef up their rotation.

Webb, who finished sixth in NL Cy Young Award voting, has long established himself as one of the best starters in baseball, but the rest of the rotation carries question marks. Ray, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023, has only pitched 34 innings the last two seasons. Hicks, a converted reliever, fatigued down the stretch in his first full season as a starter. Harrison and Birdsong showed flashes of being rotation-quality but still need to grow.

Headlining the list of available free-agent starting pitchers is Corbin Burnes, who played with Adames in Milwaukee. Burnes, who is from Bakersfield and attended Saint Mary’s College, has reportedly been linked to the Giants and is expected to receive a contract in excess of $200 million. Other available options include Max Fried, Jack Flaherty, Sean Manaea and Nathan Eovaldi, among many others.