San Francisco Giants' Newest Superstar Faces Huge Challenge Ahead

Can the San Francisco Giants' newest superstar face the inherent challenges of being the face of the franchise?

Dec 12, 2024; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants shortstop Willy Adames reacts during his introductory press conference at Oracle Park. | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

With Spring Training starting up for the San Francisco Giants, the franchise will be hoping to improve in 2025.

For the last number of years, the Giants have fallen on some hard times as a franchise. In seven of the last eight years, San Francisco hasn’t been over the .500 mark.

Besides an outlier year in 2021, the Giants have fallen way behind some of their rivals in the National League West.

With a farm system that is one of the lowest-ranked in the league, the Giants have relied heavily on free agents to help them. Unfortunately, San Francisco has missed out on some of the marquee ones, leaving it in a tough situation.

This offseason San Francisco did add some much-needed talent to their lineup.

Slugging has been a massive issue for the Giants since Barry Bonds retired and with the game being so reliant on hitting home runs, upgrades needed to be made.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the biggest question mark for the Giants and it revolves around whether Willy Adames can be the star that they have been seeking.

“Can this slugging shortstop do what no one has done since Barry Bonds, or will Adames, too, fall victim to the cavernous confines in San Francisco as the Giants put together a .500 or worse season for what would be the eighth time in the past nine years?” he wrote.

When San Francisco signed Adames early in the offseason, it appeared that it was going to be a great offseason. However, the franchise got a bit quiet after that as they were unable to lure top pitching target Corbin Burnes to the Bay Area.

Even though the starting rotation likely took a step back this offseason, adding Adames to the lineup should help the team immensely.

With the Milwaukee Brewers last season, Adames slashed .251/.331/.462 with 32 home runs and 112 RBI. In two of the last three seasons, the slugger has been able to reach the 30-home run mark.

That is a feat that nobody on the Giants has been able to accomplish since 2004 when Bonds did it.

Even though Adames has never made an All-Star team, he has been one of the best power-hitting shortstops in the league the last three seasons. There is certainly a concern that he might see those power numbers dip a bit playing 81 games in Oracle Park, but the talent is there to still be a very good player.

For a team that has been desperate to add a superstar to their lineup, he might not check that box. However, he was a good addition to a lineup that needed some pop in the middle of the order.