Should San Francisco Giants Fans Panic Over New Star's Early Slump?

When Buster Posey took the reins of the San Francisco Giants organization this offseason, he got right to work on putting some old narratives to bed and shaping the team to suit his vision.

To the former point, it had become a consensus view across baseball that the Giants could not attract top-tier big-name talent.

So he signed Justin Verlander to boost the starting rotation and landed shortstop Willy Adames to serve as the team's everyday shortstop and new franchise player.

Adames, who clubbed 32 home runs and drove in 112 in 2024 as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, looked every bit as advertised for San Francisco in spring training, where he produced a slash line of .333/.393/.549.

He looked ready to go, but so far, he has failed to bring that momentum with him in the regular season.

Adames has yet to hit a home run, and his .196/.270/.250 slash line is good for a disastrously bad OPS+ of 55.

It's the sort of start that casts his seven-year, $182 million contract in a different light, and one that has analysts wondering where Giants' fans level of concern should be.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report broke down seven players around MLB off to poor starts and rated them on a panic meter.

"However, he hasn't even flirted with a home run yet, let alone actually hit one," Miller wrote while putting him at a 6.1. "And his value 'added' on defense thus far has been much more in line with what he provided last season than what he did in the previous half-decade, which is most unwelcome news for the Giants, who have pretty well committed to him at shortstop for the next seven years."

Miller goes on to note that March and April are historically Adames' weakest months, but what has been seen in 2025 so far is a new low.

It harkens back to the 2021 season and his start with the Tampa Bay Rays prior to being traded to the Brewers. Then, Adames struggled to a similar degree due to his trouble actually seeing the ball at Tropicana Field.

There's no luck-fueled turnaround on the horizon right now, though, as Adames' Baseball Savant data shows his actual batted-ball performance is about as poor as his results.

He is far too good to continue to perform this poorly, and he'll figure it out to some degree. But the Giants may need other hitters to keep stepping up more than they hoped for in the offseason.