Willy Adames was a central part of a 2024 Milwaukee Brewers team that overcame significant personnel losses to win the NL Central. Now he too is leaving.
The former Brewers shortstop agreed to a seven-year, $182 million contract with the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday. ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Adames’ departure comes a year after the Brewers saw the departures of top prospect Corbin Burnes, manager Craig Counsell and president of baseball operations David Stearns last winter. They regrouped admirably to win 93 games in 2024, but now must find another way to continue their excellence in the NL Central.
Because Adames turned down a qualifying offer, the Brewers will receive draft pick compensation from his new team.
The deal rewards Adames for a career season in 2024, in which he hit .251/.331/.462 while holding down shortstop for an MLB-best 161 games.
Adames didn’t enter free agency with the juice of, say, a Trea Turner or Xander Bogaerts (both of whom made at least $280 million), but he was easily the top player at the shortstop position this winter, not to mention among the No. 5 players on the Top 50 free-agent board at Yahoo Sports.
Adames has been one of the most underrated players for years, as evidenced by the fact that he has never made an All-Star Game despite being a shortstop with a career 109 ERA+. He’s an above-average hitter capable of playing the game’s most important position off the battery, and those players get paid.
It feels like so long ago, but Adames’ career as an underrated player started when he was the shortstop not named Wander Franco on the Tampa Bay Rays. During his fourth season in Tampa, Adames was traded to Milwaukee to make way for Franco, a can’t-miss prospect whose career ended in a Dominican courtroom over disturbing allegations.
The Brewers immediately reaped the rewards of the deal and have since received 14.0 WAR from Adames over the course of three and a half seasons. He was a defensive cornerstone, a middle-of-the-road bat and a clubhouse leader. Milwaukee has built its recent teams on quiet moves that culminate in big wins, and Adames has been one of the biggest examples.
