Giants Notes: Adames, Mayer, Bullpen

Giants shortstop Willy Adames was diagnosed with a torn UCL in his non-throwing elbow earlier this week. Rather than surgery, Adames received a platelet-rich plasma injection on Thursday and will go with a rest-and-rehab approach to his recovery, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. The projected rehab timeline of 3-4 weeks obviously calls into question Adames’ availability for the remainder of the season. Even if he is cleared for baseball activity on the shorter end of that range, Adames will have little to no time for a minor league rehab assignment since the minor league schedule concludes on September 20. Speaking with Slusser and other reporters, Adames said “I’m hoping that I can play in the last week [but] I don’t know how many days we’re going to have. But if I’m not 100 percent, I don’t think I’m going to push it. It would be different if we were in a different position, but even though I want to be out there every day, I have to feel 100 percent.” With the Giants out of contention, Adames’ season seems likely to end with a .230/.289/.424 slash line and 21 homers in 505 plate appearances. Between the 97 wRC+ and some very poor defensive metrics at shortstop, Adames generated only 0.4 fWAR in the second season of his seven-year, $182MM contract. Adames described his year as “disappointing,” saying that “it felt like I couldn’t get it right this year, on defense or offense. So I’ll work on reevaluating 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.” Another player who’ll be firmly in the mix for 2027 infield work is new to the organization and still hasn’t yet made his Giants debut. Deadline acquisition Marcelo Mayer hasn’t played since June 25 due to a stress reaction in his left forearm, and just as it seemed Mayer was on the verge of being activated from the 10-day IL, his rehab assignment was halted last week due to a bone bruise in his right foot. It doesn’t seem like Mayer’s setback will threaten to end his season, as Giants manager Tony Vitello told Slusser and company that Mayer is no longer wearing a walking boot, and is expected to start to ramp up baseball activity over the weekend. Because it has been over 60 days since Mayer’s last MLB game, the Giants can move him to the 60-day IL at any point if the club needs a 40-man roster spot. The Mayer trade was one of the topics addressed by San Francisco GM Zack Minasian during a recent appearance on the Murph & Markus podcast. Reliever Erik Miller is controlled through the 2029 and “we didn’t necessarily have Erik as someone we were looking to move” as the deadline approached, Minasian said. The Giants therefore set a high asking price when the Red Sox came calling about Miller, and Mayer “wasn’t really made available in this type of deal until just a couple of hours before the trade deadline.” The fourth overall pick of the 2021 draft has played in only 114 big league games since making his debut in 2025, as injuries have impacted both Mayer’s availability and likely his performance, as he has a modest .223/.278/.346 slash line to show for 364 PA for the Red Sox. Naturally that isn’t nearly a large enough sample size to close the door on a player who is still only 23 years old, and Mayer will now see if he can break out in a new environment. As Minasian put it, Mayer has “the type of upside we just felt like we had to take a chance on.” Trading Miller removed another arm from a Giants bullpen that figures to be a clear target area this winter. Minasian noted that the relief corps has pitched decently well outside of the ninth inning itself, yet locking down games has been a major issue this season — San Francisco has almost as many blown saves (21) as saves (25). “I know as a front office, we don’t feel comfortable obviously resting on what we have,” Minasian said. “You always want more talent. I don’t necessarily want to take away from some of the guys that we have that I think can be part of a really good bullpen,” yet the team would like to find a “bullpen ace” type to solidify late-game situations. The Giants could go after one of the top free agent closers available (i.e. David Bednar or Raisel Iglesias), or such relievers as Adrian Morejon or Jason Adam have less full-time closing experience but would be fits if the Giants pursue just high-leverage arms rather than strict closers. Bounce-back candidates such as Evan Phillips or Kenley Jansen could also be on San Francisco’s radar. However the Giants choose to approach things, it certainly seems like the club will make the bullpen much more of a priority this winter after little relief help was added last offseason.