During the offseason, the San Francisco Giants seemingly went all in to win as soon as possible. They were rumored to be interested in a lot of different free agents, but their big addition was shortstop Willy Adames. Adames came to the team with huge expectations, but he hasn't exactly played up to par yet.
I'm not going to beat around the bush here. Adames has been terrible this season.
On the year, he's slashing .230/.314/.358 while being worth 0.0 WAR on the season. The slugger has just four home runs on the season while being a putrid two for four on stolen base attempts. According to Baseball Savant, he's also been worth -4 fielding run value and -5 outs above average, both horrendous numbers in the advanced fielding metric world.
The good news is he's been hotter as of late. If he can catch fire, the Giants could dominate.
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When Willy Adames turns it around, the Giants will dominate
With the worst possible version of Adames, the Giants are a very impressive 24-14, good for second place in the National League West. They're tied with the San Diego Padres for second place and trail the loaded Los Angeles Dodgers by one game.
So what will happen if Adames catches fire?
It's only a matter of time before the offseason addition begins to play closer to an .800 OPS player than a .650 OPS player. He's taken the most at-bats on the team and been one of the least valuable players. Things are going to trend upward in San Francisco when Adames begins to perform like a 4.0 or 5.0 WAR player again.
Last season, Adames was a slightly above average defender, per FRV and OAA. If he can get back to that level of play, the Giants will be a much better team.
Given his .321/.406/.607 slash line in 28 at-bats this month, it seems like he's trending in the right direction. If the Giants are going to catch the Dodgers in the NL West, they're going to need the best version of Adames. We could see this reality here in the near future in San Francisco.