SF Giants may get yet another reason to move on from Willy Adames in 2026 MLB Draft

With the SF Giants being open to trading away their big contracts ahead of the trade deadline, there’s a chance shortstop Willy Adames could be on the move. The Giants already have a few reasons to move on from him, namely the fact that he's underperformed both offensively and defensively this season and is still owed a ton of money, but they could gain yet another in the 2026 MLB Draft.

In recent years, the Giants have loaded up their farm system with shortstop talent. The top four prospects in the organization are all guys who can play shortstop. Josuar Gonzalez, Luis Hernández, Jhonny Level, and Gavin Kilen have all been impressive in the minors this year.

Even though they are all at least a few years away from debuting in the big leagues, the Giants might be smart to get Adames out of the way so that they aren’t blocked when they are ready for the big leagues.

There could already be a bit of a logjam with all their young middle infielders and that logjam could get even bigger in next month’s MLB Draft.

Giants will probably take a shortstop with No. 4 overall pick

It seems pretty clear that San Francisco’s dream outcome would be for Roch Cholowsky to fall to them at the No. 4 overall pick. It’s an unlikely outcome since he’s seen by some as the best player in the draft and there are three teams that draft ahead of San Francisco.

That hasn’t stopped president of baseball operations Buster Posey from going all out to try to woo Cholowsky by having a private meeting with him and having the UCLA shortstop meet with Giants legend Brandon Crawford who Cholowsky looked up to as a Bay Area native. The Giants reportedly met with Cholowsky at the MLB combine as well.

Maybe the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, and Minnesota Twins will all be too scared to draft Cholowsky because they think the Giants will offer him a king’s ransom and he’ll refuse to sign for anything less, but it still feels like a bit of a pipe dream.

If the Giants aren’t able to land Cholowsky though, the consensus seems to be that the team will draft shortstop Jacob Lombard. He is an interesting prospect out of high school whose dad played in the big leagues and whose brother is currently in the New York Yankees organization.

It seems like no matter what, the Giants are going to be adding another young shortstop prospect to the organization which is yet another reason to move on from Adames. He’s under contract through the 2031 season so if the Giants can deal him to a team like the Atlanta Braves or Milwaukee Brewers and then maybe use Casey Schmitt at short for a few years until these guys get ready it may be a smart plan especially since Adames is pretty clearly not worth the contract the Giants gave him.

We’ll see if the Giants do end up moving their big contracts ahead of the deadline but if they add another young shortstop to their collection that only gives them more reason to trade Adames.

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