Willy Rafael Luna Adames plays shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball. In 2018, he made his Major League Baseball debut with the Tampa Bay Rays, where he remained until 2021.
Adames was a highly rated prospect who was possibly the most hyped-up position player the Rays had called up during their current winning streak.
In 2015, he batted .258 with four home runs and 46 RBIs for the Charlotte Stone Crabs, and in 2016, he batted .274 with 11 home runs, 57 RBIs, and 31 doubles for the Montgomery Biscuits.
In the 2016 All-Star Futures Game, Adames was named to the World Team. After the 2016 season, the Rays added Adames to their 40-man roster.
Adames spent 2017 with the Durham Bulls, batting .277 with 10 home runs, 62 RBIs, and a .776 OPS.
On May 22, 2018, Adames was promoted to the Rays and made his major league debut the same day. That same night, he collected his first hit, a solo home run against Chris Sale.
As a major leaguer, he hasn’t quite lived up to the promise, though he did have a 4.0 bWAR season in 2019 and was a vital player of the Rays’ World Series-winning club in 2020, with an OPS of 27 points above league average and a 1.9 bWAR that was second on the team.
But he’s been erratic at the plate, with a lifetime slash line of .254/.320/.420, and through the first half of the 2021 season, he’s hit .197/.254/.371 with five homers in 142 plate appearances, the worst offensive figures of his career.
Adames almost certainly takes over as the starting shortstop for a Brewers team that has been looking for a player who can provide above-average defense and even semi-reliable offense at the position for quite some time.
When Was Willy Adames Drafted?
Willy Adames was not drafted but he signed with the Detroit Tigers as an international free agent in July 2012.