What to make of Blue Jays kicking the tires on trading for SF Giants SS Willy Adames

The SF Giants weren’t the only team to fall short of expectations this season – the Toronto Blue Jays, who came within inches of winning the World Series in 2025, stunned the baseball world by finishing dead last in the AL East and scoring the fewest runs of any team in baseball. They dealt with their own series of injury concerns, as well as a shocking power outage from franchise superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who only hit 9 homers in 144 games and appeared to be very apathetic about his results.

The Blue Jays, naturally, will head into 2027 with an even bigger chip on their shoulder than the Giants, who seem content with treading water so long as their fans keep showing up. A rather surprising rumor came out of the GM meetings in Las Vegas, where Mitch Bannon of The Athletic shared that the Jays have had internal discussions about trading for Willy Adames.

Might the Blue Jays be a realistic suitor for Willy Adames?

All the high-paying years of Adames’ contract are still to come – he only earned $13.1 million in each of 2025 and 26, but from 2027-31 he will be making $31.1 million annually in what figure to be his decline years.

That decline, in fact, was already pretty apparent this season. After a pretty strong Giants debut season in which Adames was worth 3.7 WAR and became the first Giant since Barry Bonds to hit 30 homers, his encore was his worst season since his rookie year in terms of WAR. He posted 1.7 WAR over 121 games, dealing with a lingering back injury before finally having his season end prematurely thanks to a sprained UCL in his left elbow.

The biggest concern with Adames, even bigger than his worsening strikeout rate and on-base abilities, are his declining defense. His range at the most important defensive position on the diamond declined dramatically, most likely thanks to his back issues. That’s not something that tends to reverse itself over time – if anything, it’ll only get worse as he ages, as it would for most players not named Luis Arraez. The Giants have multiple top shortstop prospects in the organization right now, so if they keep Adames through the life of his contract, he’d have to eventually move off the only position he’s ever known as a big leaguer.

Conversely, any team willing to acquire him at this stage would have to accept the reality that his skillset is in decline, he may not be able to be a viable starting shortstop for much longer, and he’s owed a whole heck of a lot of money. The Blue Jays are aware of all this, though, and they’re still apparently at least somewhat interested. Adames’ career norms would be a decent upgrade for them after all – their middle infielders owned the fourth-lowest OPS of any team last year. Their two main options, Andrés Giménez and Ernie Clement, combined for three less homers (18) than Adames himself hit (21) in an injury-shortened year, in a pitcher-friendly park.

Adames also comes with a reputation as a solid veteran presence in the clubhouse, which could add extra appeal to a Blue Jays team hungry for postseason success. There’s also the appeal that acquiring Adames almost certainly wouldn’t cost the Blue Jays any significant talent, as merely eating most of what’s still owed on his contract would be enough to incentivize the Giants to deal him.

At this point, there’s little evidence outside of a GM meeting rumor that the Blue Jays would prefer trading for Adames rather than just signing someone like Brandon Lowe or Jazz Chisholm Jr. outright, but if they actually make a call to San Francisco, the Giants need to keep an open mind. It would free up even more money for pitching acquisitions, open a long-term spot for any of Josuar Gonzalez, Gavin Kilen or Jhonny Level, and potentially be a path towards upgrading the team’s middle infield defense even in the short-term.

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