How Posey, Giants sealed historic $182M Adames contract

SAN FRANCISCO -- As Buster Posey and Zack Minasian worked through potential contract offers to Willy Adames one day earlier this offseason, the new general manager thought back to the Matt Chapman negotiations. He wondered if the Giants had ever given out a bigger contract than the extension Chapman signed in September, so he turned to his laptop and searched for a list. 

Posey was sitting in a chair a few feet away. The former catcher's face popped up on the screen.

"I'm sitting there laughing, thinking, 'I don't know if it's good that I'm kinda looking at the boss's salary here," Minasian said earlier this week, smiling. "I kinda laughed about it. But Buster is so calm and cool, so I brought it up. Like, 'Hey, I think this is a point we can use. This is the largest contract in the history of the franchise, topping yours.' I would hope that would mean something, and I think it did."

When it came up at a press conference Thursday, Adames laughed and said he didn't know what to say about taking that title from Posey, noting that his new boss is a future Hall-of-Famer and joking that he didn't want to get fired. It's the Giants, though, who have truly felt the weight of "$167 million" over the past decade. 

Posey signed his extension in 2013, and for years the Giants found that nobody was all that eager to beat the number. Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper and many others passed. Carlos Correa said yes, but the Giants failed his physical, leading to one of the most embarrassing stretches in free agency history. 

Had the Giants not balked at the state of Correa's ankle, Adames would not have been in San Francisco on Thursday. Posey probably would not have been on a podium this offseason at all.

Farhan Zaidi paid the price for a lot of things, but right at the top of the list was the organization's inability to lure the best free agents. It'll take years to know just how suited Posey is for this job, but the early returns internally are positive, and with his first big move, he signed the best free-agent shortstop on the market to the largest deal in franchise history. 

That's a hell of an opening move for a new-look front office.

"I think it was fun to do this with him because you see the competitive nature really come out, and I saw it more and more as we felt like we were getting closer and closer to a deal," Minasian said. "I know how important it was to Buster on a lot of different levels -- our fan base, Willy in particular, our organization -- and you could feel kind of the magnitude and it's almost as if he rises to the occasion because he sees an opportunity to do something that's a big deal."

The groundwork for the largest deal in franchise history was laid at the GM Meetings in San Antonio in early November. Posey, Minasian and assistant GM Jeremy Shelley met with Gio Rodriguez, Adames' agent, and made it clear that the player was their priority. Publicly, Posey talked of the need to come away from this winter with a new shortstop. 

Juan Soto was the best player available, but the Giants never made a serious push. Adames was at the top of their board from the start of the offseason, and negotiations started to heat up last week. 

When Adames' side started to get serious about the numbers -- which ended up at $182 million over seven years -- the Giants grew more optimistic. It was clear to them that Adames was excited about the potential of playing at Oracle Park, and Posey worked to bridge the remaining gap. Everything came together quickly in the final days.

"When they stepped up and said 'This is what it would take,' then I got excited," Minasian said. "It was a message that Willy wanted to be in San Francisco and that meant a lot to Buster and I and pushed us to get this thing done."

Posey had been on the other side of two intense negotiations, including his first professional contract, which went down to the wire after the Giants picked him fifth overall in 2008. He said he didn't have a lot of expectations about how free agency would go, although he was surprised that the process was so informal at times. He worked closely throughout with Minasian and Shelley as the Giants zeroed in on their new shortstop.

"It's just having their experience and their knowledge -- Jeremy has been at this for 30 years -- and me being able to fire questions at them and ask about different scenarios, and they presented different scenarios of how something might go," Posey said Thursday. "Just working through all the details was huge for me."

This is nothing new for Minasian and Shelley, but Posey is just two months into life as an executive. People at all levels of the organization have talked glowingly about the fresh direction in their departments, but ultimately this is a results-based job, and in his new role Posey seems to be benefiting from his prior experience as a superstar player. 

When the Giants pursued Correa, their biggest mistakes came with communication. Incumbent shortstop Brandon Crawford, the team's longest-tenured player at the time, learned that he would be switching positions on social media after word of the deal leaked. As Adames' deal was being finalized, Posey called second-year infielder Tyler Fitzgerald to talk to him about a move to second base.

Posey has made it clear to others that he wants to respect how difficult these decisions are for players. He helped close the Chapman deal by finding out from the veteran what it would take to keep him in San Francisco. The Giants were not going to lowball Adames or try to win at the margins. The veteran got a full no-trade clause and none of the money was deferred. There also was a $22 million signing bonus. Posey said he tried to stay authentic throughout the negotiations. 

"(It's) letting him know, 'If you're serious about your belief in San Francisco, if you're serious about your belief in what we want to do, then we don't need to wait,'" Posey said. "We'll meet you at a place that you feel like is representative of your value. And he honored that. I feel like it was mutual. We went to a place that felt like it represented what he accomplished in his career and the right he earned to be rewarded on the open market. 

"I think it was just trying to establish trust and honesty. If you're going to say that we value you and you're going to say you value us, then let's both show that."

For the Giants, that took a massive number, and this is where the change in leadership might have the biggest impact on the 2025 season. According to sources familiar with the initial planning for 2025, the Giants were talking of taking a step back and focusing on developing young players. They had gone into the luxury tax in 2024 after signing Chapman, Blake Snell and others, and the thinking was that payroll could drop significantly after being up over $200 million last year. But that appears to have changed. 

The Giants are still right in the thick of the Corbin Burnes market, per sources, and bringing him in would put the Giants well above what originally had been expected for spending. Even adding another veteran starter on a one-year deal and signing one more bat at first base or DH would take the Giants past initial projections that were laid out during the season. It's a case Posey can make directly to the organization's board, which he is on, and he made it clear to Adames that he intends to try and add more in a bid to get the Giants back into the postseason race.

Adames, who has been in the playoffs five times in seven big league seasons, started his press conference by saying he watched Posey when he was growing up and the president of baseball operations is "the biggest reason that I'm here." Afterward, he explained why the plan that was presented to him in recent weeks led to him accepting a new No. 2 jersey from Posey.

"He said he's not stopping here. He said he's going to try to do more moves," Adames told NBC Sports Bay Area. "When you have a guy like that recruiting, who doesn't want to come here? Obviously we have a lot of talent and a lot of young (players) that are going to be amazing baseball players, and that's one of the main reasons that I wanted to come here, just to try to build that with them. Hopefully we can build that winning culture and maybe win a few championships."

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