The San Francisco Giants have been one of MLB's most pleasant surprises, improving to 37-28 in their first 55 games of the 2025 season after their electric comeback victory on Saturday. The Giants sit in third place in the NL West, but are just 1.0 game back of the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers as of this writing. The fact that they've played as well as they have despite Willy Adames practically no-showing to this point makes their hot start that much more impressive.
The Giants gave Adames a seven-year, $182 million deal, hoping he'd not only be a key contributor for them this season, but for the better part of the upcoming decade. Well, if the Giants weren't finding ways to win games, more of a spotlight would be placed on Adames, given how poorly he's performed.
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Giants hot start has taken attention away from team's biggest problem
To put it simply, Adames is playing the worst baseball of his career. After going 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts on Saturday, Adames is slashing .193/.281/.303 with five home runs and 26 RBI in 56 games played. He's appeared in more games than any Giants position player, and he's tied for the team lead in at-bats, but he's only fifth on the team in hits, home runs, and RBI.
Not only has Adames underwhelmed compared to his teammates, but his 70 WRC+ ranks 151st out of 166 qualified position players, and he's been worth -0.1 fWAR. That's right, he's been below replacement level as a player.
This is a player who finished 10th in the National League MVP balloting just last season after hitting 32 home runs and driving in 112 runs. There was reason to believe he'd take a step back this season playing half the time at notoriously pitcher-friendly Oracle Park, but who expected this?
It's easy to ignore Adames' lack of production when the team wins, but is the Giants winning at this pace actually sustainable? The Giants rank 18th in the majors in runs scored and 22nd in home runs as of this writing. They deserve credit for being where they are standings-wise, but they don't score enough runs to keep up with the Dodgers and Padres. An Adames hot streak would help greatly. Hopefully, for San Francisco's sake, that hot streak is coming.