Shortstop Willy Adames and the Giants have agreed to a seven-year, $182 million contract, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The club has not confirmed the deal.
Adames, who turned 29 on Sept. 2, entered free agency on the heels of perhaps his finest season. His 4.7 Wins Above Replacement (WAR), per FanGraphs, was a career high, ranking him among the top 20 position players in the Majors and fifth among shortstops, behind only Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor and Elly De La Cruz.
Durability was a significant asset for Adames, who started an MLB-high 161 games at shortstop for the Brewers. He did that while batting .251/.331/.462, good for a well above-average 118 OPS+. Adames’ 32 homers and 112 RBIs were career highs, with the latter number tying him for fourth in the Majors. He also stole a career-high 21 bases – more than in the previous four seasons combined – with an 84% success rate.
While that part of Adames’ game was new in 2024, the above-average bat was not. He did bounce back from a subpar 2023 campaign (94 OPS+), but since arriving in the Majors with the Rays in 2018, he owns a .248/.322/.444 slash line (109 OPS+). Never one to hit for high averages, Adames has made up for that by popping 20-plus home runs in each of his five full MLB seasons. Going back to 2019, his 140 big flies hit as a shortstop put him behind only Lindor’s 145.
Adames has more than held his own defensively as well, grading out as plus-20 career Outs Above Average, according to Statcast. That includes a plus-16 mark in 2023, which ranked second among Major League shortstops, behind only Dansby Swanson. Adames did, however, take a step back in 2024 (plus-1 OAA), with the biggest difference coming on plays moving to his left (plus-4 in 2023; minus-6 last season).
Adames, who was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic, originally signed with the Tigers in 2012. The Rays acquired him at the 2014 Trade Deadline as part of the three-team deal that sent David Price to Detroit, and Adames blossomed into a top-25 prospect in the Tampa Bay organization. After three-plus seasons with the Rays, he was traded to the Brewers in May 2021, for pitchers J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen.
Adames has flown below the radar a bit, never making an All-Star Team, leading the league in a significant statistical category or winning a major award. (Prior to 2024, he had only received MVP votes in 2021, finishing 16th in the NL.) However, Adames’ 18.1 fWAR since 2019 ranks seventh among all shortstops.
