Willy Adames’ homecoming to Milwaukee hasn’t gone according to script. After going 0-for-3 in Monday’s opener against his former team, the San Francisco Giants shortstop followed up with a costly error in Tuesday night’s 11-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, continuing a troubling early-season trend.
Although he did get a hit Tuesday night, he went 1-for-4 and now sits with just a home run, 11 RBIs and just 18 hits through 24 games.
The error, his third of the season, came in the sixth inning and opened the door for a Milwaukee scoring surge. It was the kind of routine play fans expect Adames to make, especially given his defensive reputation and the $182 million contract he inked this past winter.
“Willy Adames error has the Brewers in business in the sixth. Three errors to go along with a .520 OPS for the Old Friend. It’s been a rough start in a Giants uniform,” Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel summed up the former Brewers star’s struggles.
That start is getting harder to ignore. Offensively, Adames is stuck in neutral. He entered Tuesday night’s game with a .194 batting average, which now sits at .188. His fWAR sits at -0.6, while his Batting Run Value has dipped to -5, signaling trouble on both sides of the ball. The 2025 season is shaping to be his worst April since 2021, and this time, there is more pressure.
Related San Francisco Giants NewsArticle continues below
“If you’ve followed my career, I never hit in April. I’m not really worried about it. I’m just working and trying to find it,” Adames told MLB.com’s Maria Guardado, trying to downplay the slump.
This isn’t Tampa Bay or Milwaukee anymore. With the Giants, expectations and scrutiny are elevated.
There are a few silver linings. His hard-hit rate remains relatively strong, and his ground-ball to fly-ball distribution hasn’t veered off course, but the red flags are still waving. His bat speed is down over 2 MPH from last year, and his fast-swing rate has plummeted, suggesting mechanical or even mental issues may be at play.
The Giants aren’t sounding alarms just yet, but as the calendar inches towards May, the whispers are growing louder. For now, the Adames Era in the bay is still waiting to start.
