The best solution for Willy Adames

MLBTR took a look at the markets of Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Alex Bregman in a trio of posts for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers. We’ll continue with a look at the likely market for one of the top free agent infielders: Willy Adames.

The longtime Brewers shortstop is among the most powerful bats in the game at his position. Adames hit a career-high 32 home runs in 2024, surpassing his previous career-high of 31 home runs, set in 2022. Over the past four seasons, he tied with Corey Seager for the MLB lead in shortstop home runs (112). He’s more strikeout-prone than some teams might like, but he’s now reduced his strikeout rate in four straight seasons, racking up a quarter of his plate appearances in the last year. That’s still quite a bit, but it’s no longer much above the league average, which was 22.6% in 2024.

The Brewers bought cheap on Adames early in the 2021 season when he was struggling with the Rays, sending a pair of generally unproven relievers to Tampa Bay: JP Feyereisen AND Drew Rasmussen. In the end it worked out for both parties. Adames became an All-Star shortstop and both pitchers became key parts of Tampa Bay’s staff, Rasmussen in particular. He reeled off four consecutive seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA, largely out of the rotation.

Adames hit .244/.323/.457 in parts of four seasons in Milwaukee. This overall line is dragged down by a pedestrian 2023 season, but Adames has been at least 9% better than average at the plate in four of the last five years, as measured by WRC+ (and at least 19% better in three of the last five years). five). He’s usually viewed as a positive defender, although his defensive metrics took an unexpected dip last year, largely due to an unusually error-prone stretch in July, where he committed eight errors in just three weeks.

Teams will likely continue to view Adames as a player with strong defensive tools, and he’s willing to move to another position – third or second base – if the right opportunity presents itself. Adames made the obvious decision to turn down a qualifying offer from Milwaukee. He definitely kept a watchful eye as fellow shortstops Trevor’s story ($140 million), Javier Baez ($140 million) and Dansby Swanson ($177 million) all cashed in major free agent deals ahead of their age-29 seasons. Adames, whose gregarious personality and reputation as a clubhouse leader only add to his appeal to clubs, likely has as much or even more earning power than anyone else in that group.

Let’s see which teams could be involved.