Willy Adames is drawing “very broad” curiosity in free company, with MLB Community’s Jon Morosi (X hyperlink) naming the Astros, Blue Jays, Braves, and Pink Sox as golf equipment wanting on the shortstop. The Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees are additionally talked about in a considerably extra speculative trend, below the overall premise that groups with infield wants — quite than particular shortstop wants — have Adames on their radar.
Experiences surfaced a few weeks in the past that Adames was open to shifting off shortstop if the scenario warranted, thus additional opening up his market of potential suitors. Taking a look at Morosi’s checklist, the Braves would seemingly be the one one of many 4 golf equipment that might be Adames as a shortstop, since Atlanta has a transparent want on the place.
Orlando Arcia struggled by a really tough 12 months on the plate in 2024, and changing Arcia with Adames at shortstop would offer an enormous improve to the Braves’ lineup. Signing Adames would symbolize a brand new frontier for Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, as Marcell Ozuna’s four-year, $65MM deal from the 2020-21 offseason is the biggest free agent contract Anthopoulos has handed out over his seven-plus years working the Braves’ entrance workplace.
Adames’ anticipated contract would greater than double Ozuna’s deal. MLBTR predicted a six-year, $160MM contract for Adames. Including someplace within the vary of $26.6MM in common annual worth onto the Braves’ books would proceed to spice up a payroll that has loads of long-term commitments in place, although Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias are each free brokers after the 2025 season, and technically Chris Sale might be as properly if Atlanta doesn’t train a membership choice on his providers for 2026.
Signing with Boston would open up a number of defensive potentialities for Adames. Trevor Story is the incumbent shortstop and nonetheless a superb defender, even when accidents have restricted Story’s offense and enjoying time altogether over his three seasons with the Pink Sox. Story remains to be owed $77.5MM by the 2027 season, and whereas he can choose out of his contract after the 2025 marketing campaign, an opt-out doesn’t appear in any respect seemingly given the veteran infielder’s previous few years.
The Sox used Story at second base in 2022 when Xander Bogaerts was nonetheless on the crew, so Story might shift over to the keystone once more to accommodate Adames. Or, maybe the best reply is simply to put in Adames because the common second baseman, hopefully lastly ending the revolving door that has been Boston’s second base place in recent times.
Star prospects Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell might slot into the infield combine as early as 2025 if Campbell isn’t utilized as an outfielder. As soon as the Sox see what they’ve within the children and wish to search out enjoying time, the Pink Sox might them maybe use Adames as a 3rd baseman, bumping Rafael Devers into a primary base or DH function. There are many shifting elements defensively, but Adames would offer a transparent enhance to a lineup in sore want of a giant right-handed bat.
Bo Bichette is coming off a depressing 2024 season, but he stays Toronto’s on a regular basis shortstop heading into his ultimate 12 months of crew management. With Bichette within the fold, the Jays might use Adames at second or (extra seemingly) third base, because the Blue Jays’ collective of in-house younger infielders are virtually all higher suited defensively to the keystone than the recent nook.
If Bichette was to go away in free company subsequent winter, Toronto might discover merely shifting Adames again to shortstop, thus addressing a serious place in comparatively straightforward trend. Second and third base might then be occupied on a extra everlasting foundation by one of many Blue Jays’ incumbent infielders, relying on which stood out throughout the 2025 season. Once more, the offensive improve is apparent, since Adames, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and what the Jays hope will likely be a resurgent Bichette type a robust lineup core on paper.
It’s value mentioning that Adames has performed just about his whole MLB profession on the shortstop place, and he hasn’t performed anyplace else on the diamond since making 10 appearances as a second baseman throughout his 2018 rookie season with the Rays. Shifting to 3rd base would subsequently symbolize a completely new problem for the 29-year-old, which offers an attention-grabbing backdrop to the Astros’ pursuit.
Since Jeremy Pena and Jose Altuve have the center infield positions coated, Houston would subsequently be Adames as a 3rd baseman if Alex Bregman signed elsewhere. Astros GM Dana Brown has described re-signing Bregman as “our greatest precedence,” so whereas Bregman’s departure is way from a foregone conclusion, the Astros absolutely have some backup plans in thoughts if their longtime third baseman did depart.
Changing Bregman with one other high-priced free agent infielder would rely as a little bit of a shock, given how Brown has stated his membership “might must get slightly bit artistic” in managing the payroll this winter. The identical applies to the Blue Jays, as Toronto already posted a team-record excessive payroll in 2024 with solely a last-place end within the AL East to indicate for it. The Pink Sox have loads of payroll room open, and whereas the crew has shied away from main free brokers in the previous couple of years, Boston has already been linked to a variety of prime names (Juan Soto, Max Fried, Teoscar Hernandez, Blake Snell), so the Sox appear to be signaling that they’re able to once more store within the high-rent district.
Since Adames is certain to reject the Brewers’ qualifying supply, a brand new crew would face some kind of penalty for signing him. The Braves and Astros each exceeded the luxurious tax in 2024, and thus signing Adames or any certified free agent would price the membership $1MM in worldwide bonus pool cash, plus their second- and fifth-highest picks within the 2025 draft. It’s a steep penalty to pay, although the draft hit might be barely lessened within the type of a compensatory choose after the fourth spherical if both the groups’ personal certified free brokers (Houston’s Bregman, Atlanta’s Fried) signed elsewhere.
The Blue Jays (simply barely) and Pink Sox stayed below the tax threshold this season, so each must hand over $500K of worldwide bonus pool cash in addition to their second-highest 2025 draft choice. The Sox even have a professional free agent of their very own in Nick Pivetta, and if Pivetta departed, Boston’s compensatory choose might come earlier than the beginning of the third draft spherical.
