Giants’ record-setting Willy Adames deal shows Buster Posey matters

Buster Posey held the San Francisco Giants’ record for the largest contract in franchise history. In Posey’s first big move as the club’s president of baseball operations, he didn’t hesitate to smash it.

The Giants agreed to terms with free agent shortstop Willy Adames on a seven-year, $182 million contract on Saturday, reshaping the left side of their infield for the rest of the decade and signaling their decision to remain aggressive as they seek to reestablish their relevance in the National League West. The deal with Adames is pending a physical — more than an insignificant detail given the medical issues that plagued Carlos Correa’s $350 million contract beyond the 2022 season — and its guaranteed money would soar past Posey’s own nine-year, $167 million contract , after which he signed. won the NL MVP Award in 2012.

With Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman, who signed a six-year, $150 million extension in September, the Giants have committed a third of a billion dollars to establish a solid offensive and defensive presence on the left side of their infield. Taken together, these investments aren’t all that different from the mega deals the Texas Rangers gave shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien after the 2021 season — a $500 million bet that paid off when the Rangers won the first World Series title in franchise history two years later.

Adames, 29, earned 4.8 fWAR last season as he finished fourth in the majors with 112 RBIs, set career highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (21), and led the Milwaukee Brewers to the NL Central title. Probably just as important to Posey and the Giants, Adames was a respected leader in Milwaukee, praised for his durability and his ability to produce in the clutch. He was among the league’s best defenders at shortstop in 2023, and while several of his advanced metrics dipped last season, there’s little doubt he represents an upgrade with the glove over the Giants’ in-house options at the position.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Giants’ stunning deal, which came on the eve of baseball’s winter meetings in Dallas, is how it reflects Posey, who had been something of a cipher during his brief tenure as first-time baseball director, filling front-office positions and adding advisory votes but otherwise provided few details on how aggressive he would be in improving a team that finished 80-82 in 2024 while missing the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.

But Posey had been clear on one point: He identified acquiring a shortstop as the club’s top priority. And the Giants just agreed to sign the top shortstop on the free agent market.

As a player, Buster Posey was a problem solver. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

Posey had a knack for cutting through the noise during his career behind the plate, tackling problems head-on, carving a direct path and avoiding the trap of overthinking. If his first big move as the Giants’ chief baseball architect is any indication, he will lean on those same attributes and impulses as he tries to close the sizable gap between his team and the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Identify problem. Solve the problem.

Posey was not sufficiently deterred by the fact that signing Adames, who had been extended with a qualifying offer by the Brewers, will force the Giants to sacrifice their second- and fifth-round picks along with $1 million in international bonus money from their pool in 2026. . That’s no small consideration for a franchise that also traded its second- and third-round picks in this past draft after signing Chapman and left-hander Blake Snell in the previous offseason. The Giants would not have lost draft picks if they had traded Adames for shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, a favorite of Giants manager Bob Melvin from their time together in San Diego but who will continue rehabbing from offseason shoulder surgery on Opening Day.

But Adames was clearly the best shortstop on the market. And Posey kept it as simple as that.

“At the end of the day, it’s a boring answer, but you just want complete baseball players,” Posey said at the GM meetings in November. “You want guys who can do a little bit of everything.”

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Interestingly, Posey’s first major free-agent signing is a fellow CAA client. The Giants recently announced the hiring of Jeff Berry, Posey’s former agent and the former head of the CAA’s baseball division, as a special advisor.

ESPN was the first to report the deal. The Giants are not expected to make the announcement until late Sunday or Monday.

The addition of Adames would push Tyler Fitzgerald into a competition at second base with Casey Schmitt, Brett Wisely and potentially Marco Luciano if the organization’s former top prospect isn’t traded or moved to the outfield.

The biggest question will be how aggressive the Giants will be to address their other big need: a pitching presence for a rotation that threw the fewest innings in the National League despite their Opening Day ace, Logan Webb, throwing the most in a individual basis. Multiple reports have linked the Giants to former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, a Bakersfield-area native who competed at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga and would give the Giants one of the best 1-2 punches in the league.

Before last season with the Baltimore Orioles, Burnes had spent his entire major-league career with the Brewers, so the addition of Adames could be a selling point in any Giants pursuit. Both players are very familiar to Zack Minasian, the Giants’ newly elevated GM, who had been director of scouting in Milwaukee during his 14 seasons with the organization. Minasian had been one of the strongest voices for champion Burnes when the right-hander showed promise in the minor leagues, advising then-Brewers GM Doug Melvin to make the former fourth-round pick virtually untouchable in trade discussions.

On a cash basis, the Giants spent $206 million on player salaries last season, exceeded the luxury tax threshold ($237 million) for the first time since 2018 and incurred operating losses that caused some discomfort among members of the ownership group. Their 2025 placeholder budget figure had called for a reduction in player wages, which can still be achieved even if the club can win the bid for Burnes – a market expected to exceed $200 million – as well as Adames.

Adding Adames’ average annual value of $26 million would put the Giants’ estimated payroll on a cash basis at about $170 million. If the Giants look to trim in other areas, they could trade one or more of their arbitration-eligible players (LaMonte Wade Jr. and Camilo Doval among them). Or they could sign one of several second-tier starting pitchers who won’t come cheap — witness Luis Severino’s three-year, $67 million contract with the A’s — but would require a fraction of what it would take to land Burnes , who notably left CAA for the Boras Corporation in 2023, and whose potential signing would also cost the Giants their third- and sixth-round picks.

Or Posey could do what he demonstrated so often during his career: cut through the noise, go after the best player and convince ownership to spend.

“I know we’re going to be very diligent in our decision-making,” Posey said last month. “But something I’ve tried to instill with the group is that we shouldn’t be inhibited by the potential fear of failure. It’s knowing, ‘Hey, sometimes we’re going to have to risk members of the media saying this was a bad decision or a bad move.” But if we feel judged in that, then you have to be okay with that.”

(Top photo of Adames: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)