San Francisco Giants Star Free Agent Signing Has Been One of Biggest Disappointments

The San Francisco Giants have gotten off to an incredible start in the 2025 MLB regular season, going 19-10.

That is good enough for first place in the National League West and has them tied for the most wins in baseball with the New York Mets, who are 19-9.

A major reason for the Giants winning as much as they have is their offense producing at a solid clip.

Coming into the campaign, it looked like they had the pitching to compete, but their lineup was full of question marks.

Scorching hot starts from center fielder Jung Hoo Lee, designated hitter Wilmer Flores, third baseman Matt Chapman, second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald and right fielder Mike Yastrzemski have spearheaded the offensive attack thus far.

It will be interesting to see if they can keep up their torrid pace, but even if there is a little bit of regression, production could be replaced by others who have struggled out of the gate.

The player everyone is keeping an eye on in that regard is shortstop Willy Adames.

After the franchise had notoriously struck out in high-level free agent pursuits, new president of baseball operations Buster Posey wasted no time making his first splash.

Identifying shortstop as the team’s biggest need and looking to add pop to the lineup, they agreed to a historic seven-year, $182 million deal with Adames.

It is only one month into the contract, but San Francisco has yet to see any return on the investment or signs that things will be turning around any time soon.

Adames has a slash line of .202/.279/.263 with only one home run and four doubles, not yet tapping into his immense power he showed last season when he launched a career-high 32 home runs with 112 RBI as one of the most productive shortstops in the game.

That slow start at the plate is more than enough reason for David Schoenfield of ESPN to select the Giants star as his most disappointing shortstop in the MLB over the first month of the campaign.

But there is a more troubling trend that San Francisco needs to watch with their starting shortstop; his defensive production has fallen off a cliff.

“... he has been bad at the plate and even worse in the field, with the worst defensive metrics of any shortstop. It has been only a month, but Adames was always a risky signing. The power should eventually land, but if the defense doesn't turn around, the Giants will still have a shortstop problem,” Schoenfield wrote.

There were some evaluators who believed Adames was destined to make a move to third base in the near future.

That isn’t an avenue the Giants are ever going to consider with Chapman locked in long-term.

Players go through slumps, and Adames certainly picked a bad time to have one at the start of his tenure with a new team. But there could be long-term concerns if the poor defense continues to this extent.