The Giants' record-breaking contract with Willy Adames shows that Buster Posey means business

Buster Posey held the San Francisco Giants record for the biggest contract in franchise history. In Posey's first big move because the club's president of baseball operations, he didn't hesitate to interrupt through.

The Giants agreed to a seven-year, $182 million contract with free-agent shortstop Willy Adames on Saturday. In doing so, they remodeled the left side of their infield for the rest of the last decade and signaled their determination to stay aggressive in restoring their relevance within the National League West. The agreement with Adames continues to be pending – greater than a minor detail given the medical issues that derailed Carlos Correa's $350 million contract after the 2022 season – and his guaranteed money can be Posey's own nine-year, $167 million contract he signed after that signed, winning the NL MVP Award in 2012.

With Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman signing six-year, $150 million contract extensions in September, the Giants have committed a 3rd of a billion dollars to construct a solid offensive and defensive presence on the left side of their infield . Taken together, these investments aren't all that different from the megadeals the Texas Rangers made to shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien after the 2021 season – a $500 million bet that paid off when the Rangers made the won the primary World Series title in franchise history two years later.

Adames, 29, posted 4.8 fWAR last season as he finished fourth within the majors with 112 RBIs, set profession highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (21) and led the Milwaukee Brewers to the NL Central title. Arguably just as necessary to Posey and the Giants, Adames was a respected leader in Milwaukee, praised for his endurance and talent to remain on top of things. He was certainly one of the league's best defenders on the shortstop position in 2023, and while a few of his production numbers dipped last season, there's little doubt that he's an improvement over the Giants' in-house options on the position.

Perhaps probably the most telling aspect of the Giants' stunning agreement, reached on the eve of baseball's winter meeting in Dallas, is the way it affects Posey, who had been something of a cipher in his transient tenure as a first-time baseball manager. He fills front-office positions and adds advisory voices but otherwise offers few details about how aggressive he can be to enhance a team that finished 80-82 in 2024 while missing the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons .

However, Posey was clear on one point: he described the acquisition of a shortstop because the club's top priority. And the Giants just agreed to sign the highest shortstop on the free-agent market.

During his profession behind the plate, Posey had a knack for cutting through the noise, tackling problems head-on, finding a direct path and avoiding the trap of overthinking. If his first big move because the Giants' chief baseball architect is any indication, he’ll lean on those self same traits and impulses as he looks to shut the sizable gap between his team and the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Identify problem. Fix problem.

Posey wasn't sufficiently deterred by the proven fact that signing Adames, who had been prolonged a qualifying offer by the Brewers, will force the Giants to forfeit their second- and fifth-round picks and $1 million in international bonus money from their pool for 2026. Those aren’t any small considerations for a franchise that also cut its second- and third-round picks on this past draft after signing Chapman and left-hander Blake Snell the previous offseason. The Giants wouldn’t have lost any draft picks in the event that they had traded from Adames to shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, a favourite of Giants manager Bob Melvin from their time together in San Diego but who moved on from offseason shoulder surgery on Opening Day will rehabilitate.

But Adames was clearly the very best shortstop available. And Posey kept it so easy.

“Ultimately it's a boring answer, but you just want complete baseball players,” Posey said on the November GM meetings. “You want people who can do a little bit of everything.”

Interestingly, Posey's first major free agent contract is with fellow CAA player. The Giants recently announced the hiring of Jeff Berry, Posey's former agent and former CAA head of baseball operations, as a special advisor.

ESPN was first to report the agreement. The Giants aren't expected to make an announcement until late Sunday or Monday.

The addition of Adames would push Tyler Fitzgerald into competition at second base with Casey Schmitt, Brett Wisely and possibly Marco Luciano if the organization's former top prospect isn't traded or moved to the outfield.

The biggest query is how aggressive the Giants will probably be to fill their second big need: a pitching presence for a rotation that has thrown the fewest innings within the National League, although their Opening Day ace Logan Webb has thrown probably the most Innings pitched on a person basis. Multiple reports have linked the Giants to former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, a Bakersfield-area native who starred at Saint Mary's College in Moraga and gave the Giants certainly one of the league's best one-two punches.

Before last season with the Baltimore Orioles, Burnes had spent his entire major league profession with the Brewers, so signing Adames might be a selling point for any Giants attempt at a pursuit. Both players are well-known to Zack Minasian, the Giants' newly appointed GM, who served as director of scouting in Milwaukee during his 14 seasons with the organization. Minasian was certainly one of the strongest voices for Burnes winning when the right-hander was showing promise within the minor leagues, advising then-Brewers GM Doug Melvin to make the previous fourth-round pick virtually untouchable in trade talks.

On a money basis, the Giants spent $206 million on player salaries last season, exceeded the posh tax threshold ($237 million) for the primary time since 2018 and suffered operating losses that caused some unease amongst members of the ownership group. Their placeholder budget figures for 2025 had called for a cut in player salaries, which could still be achieved even when the club can win the bid for Burnes – a market expected to exceed $200 million – and Adames.

Adding in Adames' average annual value of $26 million, the Giants' estimated payroll on a money basis can be about $170 million. If the Giants look to enhance in other areas, they might trade a number of of their arbitration-eligible players (including LaMonte Wade Jr. and Camilo Doval). Or they might sign certainly one of several second-tier starting pitchers who aren't low-cost — akin to Luis Severino's three-year, $67 million contract with the A's — but would command only a fraction of what it might take to sign Burnes who notably left CAA for the Boras Corporation in 2023 and whose possible signing would also cost the Giants their third and sixth round draft picks.

Or Posey could do what he has proven so again and again throughout his playing profession: cut through the noise, go after the very best player and persuade owners to spend money.

“I know we will be very careful in our decision-making,” Posey said last month. “But I attempted to convey to the group that we might not be paralyzed by the potential fear of failure. It's about knowing, 'Hey, sometimes we have now to take the chance of individuals within the media saying it is a bad decision or a foul move.' But if we feel condemned in that, then you’ve got to be OK with that.”