Buster Posey held the San Francisco Giants record for the largest contract in franchise history. In Posey’s first big move as the club’s president of baseball operations, he didn’t hesitate to break through.

The Giants agreed to a seven-year, $182 million contract with free-agent shortstop Willy Adames on Saturday. In doing so, they remodeled the left side of their infield for the remainder of the decade and signaled their determination to remain aggressive in restoring their relevance in the National League West. The agreement with Adames is still pending – more than a minor detail given the medical issues that derailed Carlos Correa’s $350 million contract after the 2022 season – and his guaranteed money would be Posey’s own nine-year, $167 million contract he signed after that signed, winning the NL MVP Award in 2012.

With Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman signing six-year, $150 million contract extensions in September, the Giants have committed a third of a billion dollars to build a solid offensive and defensive presence on the left side of their infield . Taken together, these investments aren’t all that different from the megadeals the Texas Rangers made to shortstop Corey Seager and second baseman Marcus Semien after the 2021 season – a $500 million bet that paid off when the Rangers made the won the first World Series title in franchise history two years later.

Adames, 29, posted 4.8 fWAR last season as he finished fourth in the majors with 112 RBIs, set career highs in home runs (32) and stolen bases (21) and led the Milwaukee Brewers to the NL Central title. Arguably just as important to Posey and the Giants, Adames was a respected leader in Milwaukee, praised for his endurance and ability to stay in control. He was one of the league’s best defenders at the shortstop position in 2023, and while some of his production numbers dipped last season, there’s little doubt that he’s an improvement over the Giants’ in-house options at the position.

Perhaps the most telling aspect of the Giants’ stunning agreement, reached on the eve of baseball’s winter meeting in Dallas, is how it affects Posey, who had been something of a cipher in his brief tenure as a first-time baseball manager. He fills front-office positions and adds advisory voices but otherwise offers few details about how aggressive he would be to improve a team that finished 80-82 in 2024 while missing the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons .

However, Posey was clear on one point: he described the acquisition of a shortstop as the club’s top priority. And the Giants just agreed to sign the top shortstop on the free-agent market.

As a player, Buster Posey was a problem solver. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

During his career behind the plate, Posey had a knack for cutting through the noise, tackling problems head-on, finding a direct path and avoiding the trap of overthinking. If his first big move as the Giants’ chief baseball architect is any indication, he will lean on those same traits and impulses as he looks to close the sizable gap between his team and the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Identify problem. Fix problem.

Posey wasn’t sufficiently deterred by the fact that signing Adames, who had been extended a qualifying offer by the Brewers, will force the Giants to forfeit their second- and fifth-round picks and $1 million in international bonus money from their pool for 2026. Those are no small considerations for a franchise that also cut its second- and third-round picks in this past draft after signing Chapman and left-hander Blake Snell the previous offseason. The Giants would not have lost any draft picks if they had traded from Adames to shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, a favorite of Giants manager Bob Melvin from their time together in San Diego but who moved on from offseason shoulder surgery on Opening Day will rehabilitate.

But Adames was clearly the best shortstop available. And Posey kept it so simple.

“Ultimately it’s a boring answer, but you just want complete baseball players,” Posey said at the November GM meetings. “You want people who can do a little bit of everything.”

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Interestingly, Posey’s first major free agent contract is with fellow CAA player. The Giants recently announced the hiring of Jeff Berry, Posey’s former agent and former CAA head of baseball operations, as a special advisor.

ESPN was first to report the agreement. The Giants aren’t expected to make an announcement until late Sunday or Monday.

The addition of Adames would push Tyler Fitzgerald into competition at second base with Casey Schmitt, Brett Wisely and possibly Marco Luciano if the organization’s former top prospect isn’t traded or moved to the outfield.

The biggest question is how aggressive the Giants will be to fill their second big need: a pitching presence for a rotation that has thrown the fewest innings in the National League, although their Opening Day ace Logan Webb has thrown the most Innings pitched on an individual basis. Multiple reports have linked the Giants to former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, a Bakersfield-area native who starred at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga and gave the Giants one of the league’s best one-two punches.

Before last season with the Baltimore Orioles, Burnes had spent his entire major league career with the Brewers, so signing Adames could be a selling point for any Giants attempt at a pursuit. Both players are well known to Zack Minasian, the Giants’ newly appointed GM, who served as director of scouting in Milwaukee during his 14 seasons with the organization. Minasian was one of the strongest voices for Burnes winning when the right-hander was showing promise in the minor leagues, advising then-Brewers GM Doug Melvin to make the former fourth-round pick virtually untouchable in trade talks.

On a cash basis, the Giants spent $206 million on player salaries last season, exceeded the luxury tax threshold ($237 million) for the first time since 2018 and suffered operating losses that caused some unease among members of the ownership group. Their placeholder budget figures for 2025 had called for a cut in player salaries, which could still be achieved even if the club can win the bid for Burnes – a market expected to exceed $200 million – and Adames.

Adding in Adames’ average annual value of $26 million, the Giants’ estimated payroll on a cash basis would be about $170 million. If the Giants look to improve in other areas, they could trade one or more of their arbitration-eligible players (including LaMonte Wade Jr. and Camilo Doval). Or they could sign one of several second-tier starting pitchers who aren’t cheap — such as Luis Severino’s three-year, $67 million contract with the A’s — but would command only a fraction of what it would take to sign Burnes who notably left CAA for the Boras Corporation in 2023 and whose possible signing would also cost the Giants their third and sixth round draft picks.

Or Posey could do what he has proven so many times throughout his playing career: cut through the noise, go after the best player and convince owners to spend money.

“I know we will be very careful in our decision-making,” Posey said last month. “But I tried to convey to the group that we would not be paralyzed by the potential fear of failure. It’s about knowing, ‘Hey, sometimes we have to take the risk of people in the media saying this is a bad decision or a bad move.’ But if we feel condemned in that, then you have to be OK with that.”

(Top photo by Adames: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)