Willy or Won't He?

 

There's been a lot of talk about the Kyle Tucker contract this week, especially considering how poorly he's been playing at this specific moment. There's gonna be smoke about this next year to rationalize CEOs not forking over the money to pay players. Which is not what people are saying, we don't need to incentivize paying players Kyle Tucker sized contracts, we need to incentivize...PAYING players. Teams should spend money on keeping great players around, and it doesn't need to be Tucker money or Dylan Cease money. Players need enough to sustain themselves but not too much to fail to sustain themselves. 

Willy Adames is an underrated entry into this conversation. Last year, after a peak season, the Giants signed him to a 7-year, 182 million dollar deal. It made sense at the time. Adames has never been a superstar, but he's a contact king with great power perks and great defense, he's the full package and can get things done in the postseason. He gets to San Francisco last season, and does...fine. .225 average, .740 OPS, 30 homers, 87 RBIs, still productive numbers. This season was another step backwards. In 116 games, he's hitting .224 with a .697 OPS, 19 homers and 48 RBIs. Yes, his next home run will be #200 career-wise, and that is nice, but he's faded into the background on a team where he could have starred. He made things work in Milwaukee, and was an underrated aspect of those competitive Brewers teams. But here, on a team with Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers, Logan Webb and Jung Hoo Lee, he sort of does his thing without being especially noteworthy.

At the very least, even if Rafael Devers will have a slow stretch in SF, he'll respond with a killer month. In May he hit .306, then in the following two months he hit 15 homers. That he's only hit 3 all August, plus a .235 average this month, just proves how spotty he's become, even if the perks are still worth it. Bryce Eldridge is in the same category, as after a .300 June, he fell back down to earth and has hit .200 since the start of the second half. It's a very inconsistent, spotty team that, despite having very talented people on board, cannot seem to put together a solid enough six month run to garner anyone's attention.

Amusingly, the Giants have gotten to the point where they're now trying guys out places, just to see what'll work. Oselvis Basabe has been surprisingly good as a 2nd base fill-in, Jonah Cox might be an answer in center, Drew Cavanaugh might be a catching option going forward [if Susac's gonna keep getting hurt]. And hey, this Dylan Smith guy might be a 9th inning success if given a larger opportunity. It's good that they're figuring those out, because so much of this team needed to be crumpled and tossed for simply not staying on the gameplay as often as the higher three NL West teams. Will 2027 be better? Probably not, maybe a little. The pieces are sort of there, they just need to do what they're supposed to.

Coming Tonight: A big craftsman with a mustache who's the most 34-looking 24 I've ever seen.