Brewers Could Lose Star Shortstop To Braves In Free Agency

The Brewers could lose a key piece this offseason.

Milwaukee Brewers Willy Adames smiles as he answers questions during a press conference before the Tuesday Milwaukee Brewers National League Wild Card playoff series at American Family Field in Milwaukee on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. / Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The season is over for the Milwaukee Brewers. Despite coming to within two outs of advancing to the NLDS, closer Devin Williams faltered and allowed the New York Mets to come back and win the deciding game of the National League Wild Card Series.

To make matters worse, the Brewers could potentially lose a key piece in free agency. Shortstop Willy Adames is not expected to return to Milwaukee for 2025. He'll certainly be expensive and may even be out of the Brewers' preferred price range.

Harrison Smajovits of Sports Illustrated predicted that Adames could be a target for the Atlanta Braves.

Adames would not be the first former Brewers shortstop to head to Atlanta. The Braves currently have former Brewer Orlando Arcia manning the position. But Adames certainly checks a lot of boxes.

Losing the star shortstop would certainly hurt for the Brewers. He is a key piece in the middle of their lineup and not having him back in 2025 would not be ideal for Milwaukee.

The Brewers have a young core and could move Joey Ortiz to the position, who performed well this season, hitting 11 home runs while stealing 11 bases and posting a .727 OPS.

Still, replacing Adames will be no easy task for Milwaukee. The Brewers don't often dish out big contracts to free agents, which means that replacing the star shortstop will likely be done so internally.

It will be interesting to see what his market looks like. The Braves certainly make sense for Adames.

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