Willy(ie) Mac Day

Sep 27, 2025 | Latest Post, Out of Left Field

by DrLefty

 

Congratulations to Willy Adames!

I voted for Justin Verlander in the TWG poll, but I couldn’t be more pleased that Willy Adames is a Giant and that he’s this year’s Willie Mac Award winner. Really, in hindsight, he was the obvious choice. If you go back and look at all the major highlights this season, especially the zany walk-offs, Adames is always the first one out of the dugout ready to congratulate his teammates. I’ve been calling him the “Dominican Hunter Pence” for a while, and I think that’s a pretty good comp, but MrLefty observed that Adames has a bit of Pablo Sandoval in him, too.

When the news broke last fall that new President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey had jumped the market and signed the best shortstop free agent available–breaking his own record for the richest contract ever given to a Giant, there were universal accolades around baseball. Not only was Adames a very good player, but he was also loved and respected around MLB as a great teammate, a hard worker, and someone who plays with visible, effervescent love for the game. One of my favorite little tidbits about the signing was that Matt Duffy–another Willie Mac winner, and to this day the only rookie to ever win it–loved Adames so much from their time together that Willy was one of the few former teammates invited to Duffy’s wedding, and that Duffy helped talk Adames into signing with the Giants.

In the offseason, we heard stories about Adames driving two and a half hours each way from his home in the Dominican Republic to attend the signing of high-profile international free agent Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez and then, shortly thereafter, cutting his visit home short so that he could buy a house in the Scottsdale area and work out with Matt Chapman for a full month before camp opened. Adames clearly took his responsibilities seriously and wanted to hit the ground running as a Giant.

As we all know, it didn’t quite turn out that way. Adames got off to a painfully slow start, just excruciating. By the end of June, which was slightly halfway through the season (84 games played), he had just nine homers. Adames has historically been a slow starter (his career OPS in March/April is .678, much lower than all the other months), and it was speculated that he was feeling the weight of coming to a new team and a big contract. But Willy continued cheering on his teammates and working hard. Finally, manager Bob Melvin insisted in early June that Adames take a day off to clear his head. Adames, like Chapman and Rafael Devers, does not really believe in days off, and Melvin had to appoint Chapman as an enforcer to keep Adames out of the batting cage that day.

Finally, starting in early July, Adames started to hit. 20 of his 29 homers (and counting) have come since the end of June, and his OPS in the second half is .831. He’s also, after a rough start in the field, played above-average defense. He’s now at 3.9 WAR for the year, which will be the third-best mark of his career. While I’m sure he hopes he’ll have a more consistent season in 2026, this is a remarkable turnaround after such a difficult first three months.

Interestingly, Adames is only the second Dominican-born player ever to win the award–the other was Jose Uribe, back in 1988. Most of the past winners are American-born, and the handful of Latin players on the list are from Puerto Rico (Bengie Molina, Benito Santiago, Javier Lopez, Andres Torres) or Venezuela (Omar Vizquel, Wilmer Flores, Thairo Estrada). Since one of the most beloved San Francisco Giants Hall of Famers (and the only one still with us), Juan Marichal, was known as the “Dominican Dandy,” it’s fitting to have Adames as one of the inspirational faces of the franchise, this year and for years to come.

Anyway, congratulations, Willy!

Adames went immediately from making his speech to hitting a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning.

I went to several games at Oracle Park early this season and wanted a new shirsey to represent one of the key Giants. Even though Adames was having a slow April (and that’s putting it politely), I chose his shirsey over Chapman or Jung Hoo Lee or any other possibilities. I’m happy with my choice.

 

Holy Cow, Trevor McDonald!

Last Sunday, I was pretty much over watching the Giants get knocked around by the Dodgers, and the 49ers were playing at the exact same time, so I’ll admit I watched very little of McDonald’s excellent start at Dodger Stadium, a game the Giants eventually won with a late rally. I was eager to see him in action last night, and he did not disappoint, going seven stellar innings, striking out 10, and walking none. Nine of his 10 Ks were swinging, most of them on hard curveballs below the zone. McDonald works quickly and precisely and seems very confident on the mound. And yes, I know it was the Rockies and they suck, but he seemed similarly fearless at Dodger Stadium on Sunday.

Considering that the Giants have been ham-and-egging their pitching staff since the beginning of August (after the trade deadline and with several key injuries), it’s fair to wonder why McDonald, who made his MLB debut at the end of last season and thus was on the 40-man roster, spent nearly the whole season in AAA. I mean, Mason Black and Carson Seymour before him? If I’m Buster Posey, I’m asking my good friend Randy Winn why they weren’t properly evaluating what McDonald could bring to the party.

I don’t know what McDonald’s late-season cameo means for next year’s rotation or bullpen, but he’s certainly put himself on the map. That’s what you call taking advantage of an opportunity, and all credit to him. (He’s also not hard on the eyes.)

 

Heliot Ramos Finishing Strong

It’s fair to say that Ramos has had an up-and-down year, and much has rightfully been said about his brutal play in the left field, but he’s finishing the year strong with five homers in September and three this past week, including a three-run blast last night. He also made a nice read on a liner to left, and I said to MrL, “Now–that looked like a competent, normal, major league outfielder.” We should know by now not to prematurely write Heliot Ramos off. He’ll be back in left field on Opening Day, breaking the 18-year streak, and I’m predicting he’ll be much better defensively next year.

 

Appreciating the Fans

It’s Fan Appreciation weekend, and, as Adames noted in his speech last night, the fans have brought the energy all year long. Attendance is notably up over last year. Last night, with the Giants eliminated from postseason contention and playing the worst team in baseball, they packed the house and the park was jumping all night long.

Bear in mind that the Giants went 1-15 at home between mid-July and early August, a bewildering stretch that, as much as anything else, doomed their season. Yet the fans kept coming. Bravo, Giants fans!

 

What’s Next?

The last two seasons have ended with a firing–former manager Gabe Kapler three days before the 2023 season ended, and former POBO Farhan Zaidi less than 24 hours after the 2024 season was a wrap. Will 2025 be the third?

Current GM Zack Minasian was on KNBR the other day and asked about the future of Bob Melvin and his coaching staff. Both Alex Pavlovic and Andrew Baggarly have gone on record this week as believing that Melvin will keep his job. I’m not sure I see that in Minasian’s quotes, actually. It seems like he could have said, “We picked up Bob’s extension for a reason. Of course he’ll be back next year.” But he didn’t say that.

I guess if I were hedging my bats, I’d predict that Melvin stays but some of his coaches get fired. That was the Bruce Bochy 2017 playbook. Regardless of the feel-good moments last night, the Giants have had a bewilderingly erratic season, and when you look at the team objectively, it’s not really easy to pinpoint why. Injuries? Not really. Compared to, for example, the Dodgers or the Phillies, the Giants have for the most part stayed pretty healthy. I’d say the most significant injuries involved the time Chapman was out in June/July and the season-ending injuries to Randy Rodriguez, Erik Miller, and Landen Roupp, but others–Adames, Devers, Lee, Ramos, Patrick Bailey–mostly stayed on the field, Logan Webb will lead the NL in innings for the third year in a row, and who had Robbie Ray and Verlander making 32 and 28 starts, respectively?

Underperformance? Devers, despite a slow start after being traded to the Giants, ended up hitting like the All-Star slugger he is. Adames may yet break “the curse of Bonds” by getting to 30 homers. Chapman and Ramos have hit over 20 homers as well. Webb, Ray, and Rodriguez were All-Stars. Sure, we could point to Opening Day 2B Tyler Fitzgerald falling off a cliff, but (a) the combination of Christian Koss and Casey Schmitt has made up for his absence and (b) if you were expecting Fitzgerald to be a key piece of the lineup, you were probably being overly optimistic. Ryan Walker had a disappointing year, and you could point to a few others, but really, the main guys in the lineup produced and the main pitchers in the rotation lived up to their baseball cards. And yet, the Giants at best will finish the year at .500 and out of the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years.

Something was amiss. It’s hard to pinpoint what. But that’s the kind of fact pattern that often leads to managers or coaches getting fired. We shall see.

 

Today’s Game

Rockies at Giants, 1:05 p.m., Oracle Park

Kyle Freeland (5-16, 5.00 ERA) vs Justin Verlander (3-11, 3.88 ERA)

Thank you, JV, for being such a pro this year. You deserved better! The other interesting thing to watch will be the Freeland vs Devers match-up. Enjoy your Saturday and the last weekend of Giants baseball. Lefty out.