2025 has been a very good time to be a Giants fan to this point. Buster Posey’s flip on the helm of baseball operations has helped push the membership to a strong 31-25 begin, placing them only one recreation again of the Cardinals for the ultimate NL Wild Card spot and three video games again of the Dodgers for the NL West crown. Whereas San Francisco would absolutely want to be in playoff place proper now, it’s been a really encouraging begin for a membership that was projected by Fangraphs for an 81-81 document and a 28.5% likelihood of constructing the postseason previous to the beginning of the 2025 marketing campaign. Robust because the membership’s begin has been, nevertheless, that’s been nearly totally with out contribution from their marquee free agent signing of the 2024-25 offseason.
It’s been a tough first 12 months in San Francisco for Willy Adames, to place it mildly. Lengthy seen as a superb two-way shortstop, Adames has but to put up on both aspect of the ball for the Giants. Superior defensive metrics are notoriously finicky and take fairly a very long time to stabilize, however Adames’s -3 Outs Above Common and -2 Fielding Run Worth are each worrying figures for a participant who was a Gold Glove candidate as just lately as 2023, whereas his -8 DRS this 12 months stands useless final amongst all qualifying shortstops. Errors are hardly the easiest way to measure defensive worth, however solely Manny Machado and Elly De La Cruz have dedicated extra of them in 2025. Regardless of the way you slice it, Adames has began his keep within the Bay Space off with lackluster protection.
Maybe that will be simple sufficient to look previous if Adames was placing up robust numbers on the plate. Sadly, that hasn’t been the case. He’s hitting simply .208/.288/.333 with a wRC+ of 77. His 26.2% strikeout price and 9.8% stroll price aren’t out of the bizarre relative to his profession numbers, however they’re the worst figures he’s posted in each classes since 2022. The first crimson flag in Adames’s profile this 12 months is his vanishing energy, nevertheless. After averaging 28 homers a season from 2021 to 2024, the shortstop has hit simply 5 in his first 56 video games as a Big.
No less than a few of that may be blamed on his ballpark, and Statcast means that Adames would have as many as eight homers if he performed all of his video games at a friendlier ballpark like Dodger Stadium. Park elements aren’t the one factor in charge for Adames’s power-outage, nevertheless. Whereas his barrel price of 11% is kind of in step with what he’s carried out all through his profession, Adames is pulling the ball much less typically than he ever did with the Brewers and hitting the ball softly extra incessantly than ever earlier than. The truth that Adames has stopped pulling the ball as a lot and is hitting it the opposite far more is definitely a giant purpose for his drop in energy, notably mixed with the aforementioned unforgiving park elements at Oracle Park, that are particularly harsh on right-handed oppo hitters.
That leaves Adames with an altered batted ball profile that works in tandem along with his new setting to create a few of the worst outcomes of his profession. Which means his struggles aren’t prone to finish as long as he retains going the opposite method, however the excellent news is that Adames can get again to the strategy he demonstrated in 2023 and ’24, when he pulled 45.8% of his batted balls and went the opposite method simply 19.5% of the time, it’s not arduous to think about his outcomes bettering significantly. Whereas it might be too late within the season at this level to count on Adames to match his 119 wRC+ from final 12 months, getting again up round league common and even matching the 107 wRC+ he posted during the last 4 years may very well be a way more lifelike goal.
How do MLBTR readers assume the remainder of Adames’s season will play out from right here? Will he have the ability to make the changes essential to hit effectively in Oracle Park and switch his season round, or will he stay a below-average hitter this season? Have your say within the ballot beneath:
