SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants shortstop Willy Adames gave the kind of introspective and self-critical interview that usually comes at season’s end -- appropriate for a player whose year might be over because of a sprained left elbow.
Befitting a player who hit and fielded far below expectations, Adames’ chat with a group of reporters before batting practice Friday was serious. He laughed once, when asked what the Giants needed to do in 2027 to avoid another bad season, a chuckle one could translate as, “I have to be careful here.”
“That’s a tricky question,” he said. “It’s a lot of stuff that we need to do better. There’s a lot that went wrong that I feel like everybody knows, as players we know. I know for the fans it’s not fun to come to a ballpark and watch us lose. It’s not fun for us either.
“I feel like sometimes [there’s] a perspective that we don’t care because we’re losing. No, it sucks. Coming to the field and losing a lot of games, that’s not the environment that we want to create here. The people in here, they care about each other. They want to win. They want to be better … We have to be better in basically everything out there.”
Adames did not exclude his own performance in the second year of a seven-year, $182 million contract, the largest the Giants have ever bestowed on a free agent.
“It feels like I couldn’t get it right this year, on defense or offense,” he said.
“So, I have to work and re-evaluate what I was doing this year and then focus on all the points that I have to adjust and go about it in the offseason.”
Adames, who turns 31 on Sept. 2, admitted that the back issues he has endured for much of the season had an impact, particularly on defense.
The back has become secondary to the elbow sprain, which occurred when he collided with Red Sox catcher Connor Wong’s knee on Sunday as he scored from second base on a single.
Adames received a platelet-rich plasma injection Thursday and will spend the next three to four weeks in rest and rehab, hoping he can return for a few at-bats in the season’s final week.
Then he’ll return to the Dominican Republic to work with his trainer of 15 years, Angel Gonzalez, hoping for fixes that will let him help the Giants avoid another losing season in 2027.
This year will be a first for the shortstop. In seven combined seasons with Tampa Bay and Milwaukee, his teams finished no worse than 10 games over .500 and made the playoffs five times.
Last year, his first in San Francisco, the Giants were 81-81.
Adames said he, Rafael Devers and others who have tasted success have conveyed to Giants teammates what it’s like, and he hopes the constant losing does burn over a long offseason.
“I look in my mirror every day and I’m like, ‘This is embarrassing,’” he said. “Going out there and not winning is not fun. The whole point of coming here every day to win the game. I hope everybody goes into the offseason with that mindset and comes next year with the right mentality, even, you know, the coaching staff.”