Willy Adames' defense is atrocious but SF Giants just have to deal with it (for now)

It has been a pretty brutal year for SF Giants shortstop Willy Adames. He has underperformed a bit at the plate, but what has really stood out is his poor defense. The unfortunate thing is the Giants don’t really have many options to fix it in the immediate future.

Just in the past series against the Cleveland Guardians he made several defensive miscues that served as a stark reminder of how badly he has struggled with the glove.

Adames has made 18 errors this season which ranks him among the league leaders in that category. He also grades out as the second-worst shortstop in MLB according to Outs Above Average. That all lines up with the eye test as well so however you slice it, Adames has had a very poor year defensively.

Of course, it’s important to note that he’s been dealing with a back injury for a while which has certainly impacted his defense including his ability to do drills with infield coach Ron Washington. Still, even when he was healthier early in the year he was still struggling defensively and he did not look right defensively the first half of 2025 either.

An optimist would say that the back injury has really hampered him on defense and that if he’s able to full heal in the offseason then he will come back in 2027 much improved and Washington can help him figure things out if he returns as a coach.

A realist would say that Adames is not as bad defensively as his numbers this season suggest, but he’s never going to be an above-average shortstop going forward. At best he’s going to be average and the Giants are just going to have to live with that.

Giants do not have an obvious replacement for Willy Adames at shortstop

There are limited options at their disposal. They could move him to second base but that leaves shortstop open. Maybe Casey Schmitt could play short but he has always looked much more comfortable at third base and second base. Marcelo Mayer is a potential option at shortstop but he too is better suited for either second or third.

We know all about the team’s crop of impressive teenage shortstops in the farm system but they’re several years away from making their big league debut. That means the Giants are basically stuck with Adames for the foreseeable future.

They signed him to the largest contract in the history of the franchise, a contract that no other team wants anything to do with, so they’re probably just going to have to ride it out with him and hope that he can turn it around a bit.

It’s not an ideal situation, but the Giants created this situation and now they have to deal with it. Maybe the back heals up and Adames becomes a more productive player going forward, but we know players on the wrong side of 30 don’t exactly get healthier as they age so this may be a persistent issue for San Francisco. 

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow