The 29-year-old shortstop is arguably the best infielder on the market
The Mets might need some help at third base next season. Mark Vientos was not particularly good there defensively in 2024, and there’s a decent chance Vientos will play much of next season at first base (if Pete Alonso leaves in free agency) or as the designated hitter (if Alonso stays).
And unless the Mets want to run it back with Brett Baty or put Jeff McNeil there full-time, the third-base help will likely come from elsewhere. So, who better to fill it but with the best free-agent shortstop on the market?
If you’re wondering how good Willy Adames would be as a third baseman, we are too. He’s never played a single Major League inning at third base, last manning the hot corner as a 17-year-old in the Dominican Summer League in 2013. He’s played 98.8% of his MLB games as a shortstop, registering 10 games at second base for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018 before digging in his spikes a few yards to the right for the remainder of his tenure in Tampa and with the Milwaukee Brewers.
And it makes sense, because Adames is a really good shortstop. Since 2018, Adames is eighth in Fangraphs WAR among all MLB shortstops, finishing ahead of some more famous names like Fernando Tatís Jr., Trevor Story and Javy Báez. In our current golden age of shortstop play, Adames is often the first player forgotten as a bona-fide top-10 shortstop in the game.
At least he was until last season, when he posted his best season by fWAR (4.8) while leading the Brewers in home runs (32), RBI (112) and extra-base hits (65). If Adames remained under-the-radar it’s only because he played in Milwaukee. He was a top-20 position player by fWAR and a middle-of-the-order mainstay on a division-winning club. In fact, the only shortstops to finish above him in fWAR in 2024 were MVP candidates Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor and Elly De La Cruz.
That’s not a player that most teams would part with, but since the Brewers have become allergic to long-term free-agent deals since handing one to Christian Yelich in 2020, Adames played himself out of Wisconsin by being too good. So, what would his fit in Queens be like?
It should be pretty solid, even if Lindor pushes him even farther to the right on the diamond. MLB has a few converted shortstops turned All-Star third basemen (Alex Bregman, Manny Machado), mostly because players who are good enough to play shortstop at the highest level are good enough to play anywhere. Adames should be no exception, even if his defense in 2024 cratered based on advanced metrics (heck, maybe that’s a reason he should move).
Adames has also said he would be willing to switch positions given the right opportunity. He might have said that just so his agents could talk to more suitors (like the Mets), but even if he’s reticent to leave his position, a nine-figure deal should be more than enough to push him elsewhere.
It would be really cool if that was with the Mets—but maybe fans shouldn’t start ordering their blue-and-orange Adames jerseys just yet. The team has a greater starting pitching need and a certain corner outfield target they’ll be prioritizing, and if the Mets land Adames it would likely land as a consolation prize instead of the flashy, game-changing acquisition another Dominican slugger would represent. But as consolation prizes go, Adames still has the potential to make the 2025 Mets infield much stronger than it was in 2024.