For a team that’s had a franchise shortstop in front of them since 2019, I’ve never seen a team more perpetually in the market for shortstops than the Toronto Blue Jays. Whether it was Francisco Lindor, Didi Gregorius, Xander Bogaerts or Corey Seager, the Jays love kicking tires on shortstops.

Maybe that’s because Bo Bichette has never expressed an interest in signing a long-term contract, which would explain why the Blue Jays are seemingly always looking ahead to their next shortstop of the future.

Perhaps that player has arrived in the form of free-agent shortstop Willy Adames? Let’s review his 2024 season and whether he makes sense on the Blue Jays in 2025 and beyond.

Depending on which metrics you look at, Adames might’ve just had the best year of his career. At 4.8 fWAR with the Milwaukee Brewers this past season, that surpassed his previous career high of 4.4 fWAR in 2022 during his first full season with the Brew Crew.

Adames clubbed a career-high 32 home runs and slashed .251/.331/.462 in 161 games with Milwaukee. He also started all 161 games at shortstop, which was tied for the most in MLB along with Bobby Whitt Jr.

As far as shortstops go, Adames has been one of the most reliable in the game and most of his offensive metrics have stayed steady over the past three seasons. There weren’t any troubling valleys or any worrisome peaks in his game as Adames stayed constant, not only this past season but dating back to the start of 2022.

The one red flag in Adames’ game in 2024 was his defensive play at shortstop, as he went from +8 defensive runs saved in 2023 to -16 defensive runs saved in 2024. Outs above average were kinder to Adames, as he posted +1 OOA in 2024, but that’s still a far cry from his +16 OOA in 2023.

His weakness at short are plays to his left, where his -6 OOA was one of the worst among the group in 2024. But given his track record as a premiere defender, it’s hard to see this being a steep and sudden defensive decline.

Adames and the Brewers avoided arbitration earlier in 2024 by agreeing on a $12.25 million deal. This is the first time Adames is heading to free agency in his seven-year career.

As the number one shortstop on the market this offseason, Adames will command a hefty payday in the nine figures. MLB Trade Rumors estimated he’ll fetch a six-year/$160 million deal on the open market, and given the comps for recent contracts for guys like Dansby Swanson and Javier Baez, that number tracks.

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN pumped that projection up to seven years and $187 million for Adames, which would take the 29-year-old through to his age 35 season. For some reason, that feels like a huge leap from that sixth guaranteed year to a seventh.

Absolutely. Yes, the Blue Jays already have a shortstop, but Bo Bichette could be gone as early as next year, and the Blue Jays will need to fill that void somehow. In the meantime, Adames could slide over to second base or even third base, as he’s reportedly been open to moving positions.

The Blue Jays will need to decide over the next calendar year who their shortstop of the future is, and if it isn’t Bichette, Adames would not only will that void, but he might even be a better upgrade over Bichette further down the road.

The defense is a bonus, but Adames’ calling card for the Blue Jays would be with his bat. He’d fit in well as a complementary power bat to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the middle of Toronto’s lineup. And if Adames gets back to being a plus defender again, all the better. The fear of signing a shortstop to a big contract is it could turn into a Javier Baez-esque albatross contract in a few years, but I don’t get that sense with Adames’ skill set and track record. There were warning signs about Baez’s decline before he signed with the Tigers, but that isn’t evident for Adames.

A position change is inevitable for Adames, but a former shortstop like Marcus Semien slid over to second base back in 2021 and hasn’t looked back since. But for now, Adames has the defensible ability, the speed and the power to be one of the most well-rounded shortstops in the game.

Will the Blue Jays pay up for him? If the Blue Jays are going to sink a lot of coin into a free agent this winter, it should either be Juan Soto or Adames.