It has been about twenty hours since it was announced Buster Posey and the group now leading the San Francisco Giants has an agreement to sign Willy Adames – free agent short stop from the Dominican Republic, formerly of the Milwaukee Brewers – to a long-term contract.
Adames will be 30 next September and has been very good in recent years.
You will see a lot of highlight reels. Here’s one from a Brewers fan though, from two years ago, that has a pretty nice display of skill set, clean, sans commentary:
There are some really sweet promo shorts on YT of this guy, too.
His favorites:
Humble word association:
meeting his childhood hero:
The addition of Matt Chapman was immediately evident in defensive metrics. Then he led us in hitting. With Willy Adames at short there will be equally significant progress.
It’s a good signing.
Gerald Dempsey Posey III begins the winter meetings with a move fans have been wanting for several years. The rap on Farhan Zaidi was that he made offers only to players we couldn’t get.
Buster started by telling everyone we are not in the Juan Soto Auction. He has instead, promptly gone after the strongest candidate to fill the gap of Brandon Crawford’s absence.
Sadly, trying to force Marco Luciano as heir apparent blew up in our faces at short. Numerous other guys were middling stop-gap projects at short.
(Joey Bart couldn’t be made to be an heir to Buster behind the plate – and previous management decisions look glaringly bad lately).
Buster has filled the need with an expensive but reliable long-term contract. It’s a smart, if obvious move, that will and should have wide fan support.
That they achieved it early in the off-season and professionally, with a Saturday evening leak to baseball writers so we could talk about it Sunday, is different from Zaidi and co. to say the least.
The recent hiring of the bilingual coach Oscar Bernard was another significant step made in advance of attracting Adames. According to MLB, Bernard:
“spent this past season working as the Padres’ Minor League hitting coordinator, a position he also held from 2017-22.
and is
“A native of San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic,
“Bernard is a native Spanish speaker, which should help connect with young Giants hitters such as Heliot Ramos, Marco Luciano and Luis Matos.” – MLB, 3 days ago.
So looking at it:
Matt Chapman 3b
Willy Adames ss
Tyler Fitzgerald 2b
La Monte Wade, Jr. 1b
Pat Bailey c
Mike Yastrzemski rf
Heliot Ramos/Grant McCray cf
Casey Schmitt
Brett Wisely
Thairo Estrada
Marco Luciano
Jerer Encarnacion
Jung Ho Lee
Luis Matos
And why all the hate for Thairo?
I’d have Thairo start at 2nd, myself. But there’s a case for Casey Schmitt on Reddit by SactownKorean that’s worth a read:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SFGiants/s/RxSxAGRBQy
We need a power-hitting left fielder and have had this need since the retirement of Barry Lamar.
Many argue we need a better first baseman than Giants Baseball Corner favorite La Monte Wade, Jr. I would not prioritize it.
There are rumors Buster is going after Adames’ team mate in Milwaukee, pitcher Corbin Burnes.
More soon.
Oh, and I am on Bluesky
mtksf.bsky.social
Giants Baseball Corner 