What’s the pitch Buster Posey loved to call in his glory years as the Giants’ catcher? The fastball. Always the fastball. Didn’t really matter who the pitcher was, from Tim Lincecum to Madison Bumgarner to Logan Webb, when Posey crouched down, he wanted his pitcher to be aggressive, control the at-bat, and force the opponent to react to it. The best way: throw the fastball early and often.
Well, Posey threw his own $182 million fastball on Saturday, agreeing to terms on a seven-year deal with 29-year-old shortstop Willy Adames, according to multiple reports. In a flash, this not only instantly set the tone and the terms for Posey’s first off-season as the Giants’ president of baseball operations, it broke the record for the franchise’s largest contract ever. That record was formerly held by the $167-million deal Posey signed back in March 2013, just months after he won the NL MVP.
It’s notable that the Posey deal is almost 12 years old. That’s a long time since the Giants have committed resources quite this boldly for a single player. But it’s also a nice bookend — Posey committed to the Giants back then, and now he’s committing the Giants to his style of management. Throwing fastballs. And making opponents react.
Of course, the Giants agreed to a $350-million deal with Carlos Correa in December 2022, in the middle of Farhan Zaidi’s regime, but that agreement was scotched when team doctors raised issues during Correa’s physical. (So yes, everybody should wait for the official announcement of Adames’ deal, which, of course, is pending him passing a physical.) And Zaidi offered similar gargantuan deals to several other players over the years — but none of them ever landed.
As far as I know, Adames has zero physical question marks going into this off-season. He played 161 games last season, a statistic that Posey surely noticed. When and if Adames passes the physical and officially signs this deal, he’ll be at a news conference sitting next to Posey and Bob Melvin, and the picture of the Posey Plan will be all too clear.
Really, Posey’s been telling it to us since his hiring a few months ago: pitching and defense at the heart of everything, but also a focus on players who can be counted on to show up almost every day and who absolutely want to be counted on. That’s why I knew Posey wouldn’t be lining up to throw millions at Blake Snell, even though Snell’s departure for the Dodgers aggravated Giants fans. This is why Adames’ reputation as a clubhouse leader almost certainly helped make Posey feel comfortable with such a rich deal — and the subsequent loss of two 2025 draft choices due to MLB free-agent rules.
OK, Posey was probably even more intrigued by Adames’ 32 home runs, .462 slugging percentage, and 118 OPS+ while playing such a premium position for Milwaukee last season. And there isn’t much doubt that the pop in Adames’ bat will play at Oracle Park, since it already has. This is Adames’ slash line in 63 career plate appearances at Oracle: .321 batting average / .381 on-base average / .446 slugging percentage / .827 OPS … with two home runs.
There is risk with paying Adames so much for such a long term, no doubt. Shortstops age swiftly and Adames’ defensive metrics took a worrying downturn last season. And almost no matter how good Adames is in 2025, he’s not likely single-handedly pushing the Giants past the Dodgers or even the Padres.
But if Adames is a plus player at shortstop for a few years and then maybe just keeps hitting well at another position for the last half of this deal, the Giants will feel a lot more stable in the batting order (Adames seems like a natural No. 2 hitter) and in the field. There won’t be as many jigsaw puzzle lineups. Fans will know what to expect and so will the clubhouse. There’s a structure.
A new era begins
The start of this new dependability era actually came before Posey moved into the top job, when he helped finalize the team’s $150-million contract extension with Matt Chapman, who played 154 games last season. Then at the start of this off-season Posey bypassed the high-stakes auction for Juan Soto’s services. He reportedly has checked in on ace Corbin Burnes. But Posey obviously quietly zeroed in on Adames then paid a premium to get this deal done swiftly.
More differences from the Zaidi era: Posey got a big deal done (*) and did it before next week’s Winter Meetings. Again, he’s making other teams react to the Giants’ moves, and not the other way around.
There is more to do this off-season, but now Posey has his left side of the infield locked in long-term: Chapman at third base, where he just won his fifth Gold Glove and Adames at short. This allows Tyler Fitzgerald to move to second base, where he can compete with Casey Schmitt and others. And if Posey still wants to go after Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim, they can offer him second base once Kim is ready to play after shoulder surgery. Then Kim and Adames could possibly flip positions into the future when and if Adames has to be moved off of shortstop.
Posey also has a Gold-Glove-winner at catcher, Patrick Bailey, and Jung Hoo Lee signed long-term in center field. The most important defensive positions are covered. All by early December. Top prospect Bryce Eldridge is penciled in at first base by 2026 and maybe earlier. And we’ll see what else is up Posey’s sleeve this winter and in the years beyond.
Could it be Burnes? Maybe. He’s certainly the kind of workhorse that fits the Posey profile — he’s made 97 starts over the last three seasons, compared to Snell’s 76. And a Burnes-Webb duo at the top of the Giants’ rotation would not be thrilling for the rest of the NL. But Snell already got $36.4 million a year and Burnes is likely to get a similar number or more. And signing Burnes would cost the Giants all that money and two more draft picks.
Still, I think Posey has a few more fastballs left this off-season. He started quietly. He assembled a staff of friends and associates. He hasn’t been a part of the big public negotiations. But he said he needed to get a shortstop and just landed the best one on the market. And now I’m guessing he’s got the attention of a few other teams and, perhaps, he’s giving them some real worries about what he’s capable of doing next.