The popular shortstop ends his tenure in Milwaukee
Willy Adames, the popular shortstop who became the clear second-best player at the position in Milwaukee Brewers history, has signed with the San Francisco Giants, ending his tenure in Milwaukee after three-and-a-half seasons.
Adames and the Giants have agreed to a seven-year, $182 million contract. Since the Brewers extended a qualifying offer to Adames, they will receive a compensation draft pick somewhere around No. 30 in next summer’s draft.
The Brewers compensation pick for Willy Adames signing elsewhere, FWIW, is likely to be around No. 30 in the draft and potentially slightly higher. Compensation picks for lost free agents who had a qualifying offer attached to them is right before the Competitive Balance Round A.
— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) December 7, 2024
Acquired by the Brewers for pitchers J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen in a rare late-May trade with the Rays, Adames became Milwaukee’s everyday shortstop and quickly became a team leader. From the trade on May 21 until the end of the 2021 season, Adames hit .285/.366/.521 with 20 homers and 26 doubles, the best significant offensive stretch of his career, and played good defense.
For the next three years, Adames was a mainstay in the Brewer infield. While fans had to get used to his streakiness with the bat, the macro image of Adames was clear: solid defense and good power from the shortstop position. In three full seasons with the Brewers, he hit 31, 24, and 32 home runs, and 31, 29, and 33 doubles, respectively. Adames also appeared in nine games in the postseason as a Brewer, and had his moments; he went 4-for-7 with a double and an RBI in the 2023 Wild Card round, a bright spot in an otherwise miserable two-game series.
Milwaukee chose to hang on to Adames through the 2024 season despite speculation that he’d be the latest impending free agent to get traded. For a time, it even seemed possible that the Brewers might have a chance of bringing him back, given that the 2023 free agent class had trouble getting what they thought they were worth. But a solid 2024 season (career highs of 33 doubles, 32 home runs, 112 RBI, and 21 stolen bases despite what advanced metrics and the eye test saw as a bit of a backward slide defensively) and a below-average year from the class’s other big free-agent shortstop, Ha-Seong Kim, meant that Adames was in line for a big payday.
Letting Adames walk at this price tag is the correct move by the Milwaukee front office, even if it stings to lose a player as universally beloved as Adames; $182 million is just too much for a team like the Brewers to pay a player about to turn 30 who has never had a five-WAR season.
They’ll now turn their attention to replacing him. The widely-speculated scenario involves a move to shortstop by incumbent third baseman Joey Ortiz, but Platinum-Glove-winning second baseman Brice Turang could also be an internal option. In any case, a free-agent infielder who will start a significant number of games next season seems likely. Milwaukee will also need to find a way to replace some of Adames’s power, as he was the team’s leader in home runs in each of the last two seasons and second in 2022.
The Adames legacy in Milwaukee is secure: he is, by a surprisingly clear margin, the second-best shortstop in franchise history after Robin Yount. He leaves as one of the more popular players in modern team history, and will surely receive a warm welcome when San Francisco visits in the future.
Finally, in other, far less consequential former-Brewer news, Adrian Houser has signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training with the Texas Rangers.