SF Giants 2026 Player Review: Willy Adames needed to be shut down much earlier

Yesterday began our series here at Around the Foghorn of looking at all 71 players who were on the roster for the SF Giants in 2026. Friday saw us take a look at Philip Abner and today we take a look at shortstop Willy Adames.

It was obviously a rough year for Adames, a guy who signed a franchise-record $182 million deal with San Francisco prior to the 2025 season. He hit .230/.289/.424 with 21 home runs and 51 runs batted in across 121 games. His power numbers were just fine, but that OBP is just not acceptable for a guy making as much money as he is.

He’s never been a guy with an exceptionally high OBP as he likes to swing the bat and strikes out a lot, but he has to start drawing more walks especially if his power wanes in the coming years.

Adames’ defense also left a lot to be desired. He had 18 errors with put him in the top ten for most of any player in MLB in 2026. Had he played the full season there’s a decent chance he would’ve been the leader or tied the guys who ended the year with 21. Adames also graded out as the second-worst shortstop in baseball in terms of Outs Above Average and the eye test backs up what the numbers suggest.

This is where it is important to note that Adames dealt with a back injury during the season. It impacted his ability to work with infield guru Ron Washington and had to have had an affect on all aspects of his game.

It’s probably not the only reason he didn’t have a great year, but it’s clear the Giants should have shut him down earlier than they did. It took him injuring his elbow on an awkward slide into home plate in Boston for them to finally put him on the IL, but they need to be more careful with him going forward.

Giants have to be more willing to sit Adames if he is struggling or injured

We know Adames likes to play and he wants to be out there which is admirable. Yet, the Giants have to protect him and the fact that he’s owed all this money and has a no-trade clause likely means they are stuck with him for the time being.

That means in 2027 if he has something flare up early in the season, they should just put him on the 10-day IL so he can rest a bit and the issue can subside rather than linger the entire year and impact his productivity.

He also needs to clean up the mental mistakes. Both defensively and on the base paths, most notoriously when he was having a laugh with Mookie Betts and forgot how many outs there were, he made mistakes that a veteran big leaguer just cannot make. That has to end in 2027.

There’s a good chance that even if Adames remains healthy he won’t be able to fully live up to his big contract, but one hopes the Giants learned in 2026 that they need to give Adames more rest and manager Tony Vitello needs to give him more days off and be willing to sit him if he’s not feeling right to try to get the most out of him.

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