The Milwaukee Brewers have a pair of players (technically one former player now) in Willy Adames and Devin Williams who are hot topics across baseball. Willy Adames is a free agent and is expected to sign a massive long term contract whereas Devin Williams is entering his final year of team control and is a trade candidate. Here we take a look at several rumors that emerged from the 2024 GM Meetings that took place November 5-7.
Rumors regarding Willy Adames that emerged from the GM Meetings
Over the past week there has been lots of talk about Willy Adames being open to staying in Milwaukee for less money, him switching to third base, and even that he has two contract offers on the table from outside organizations. Here we break down who all revealed what.
At The Athletic, Will Sammon and Katie Woo were the driving forces behind a lot of Willy Adames talk. They provided the quote of Adames saying, “I would be willing to stay in Milwaukee for less” as well as revealing that he is open to switching positions.
A pair of interesting quotes regarding Willy Adames as reported in a piece by Will Sammon and Katie Woo
1) He says he would take less money to stay in Milwaukee
2) When asked about possibly playing in a big market for the first time in his career, he feels things would be good pic.twitter.com/euT2O4qrcy— Tyler Koerth (@TylerKoerth) November 5, 2024
Mike Rodriguez, a MLB Insider, leaked the information that the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers have contract offers out to Willy Adames. He reported that the Mets deal was seven years in duration, is greater than $160 million, and that the plan would be to have him play third base.
One MLB Insider revealed the Milwaukee Brewers intentions for the 2025 season
Jim Bowden, MLB Analyst and Insider at CBS Sports, wrote a piece on what the Brewers intentions are for the 2025 season. To summarize he was told that Milwaukee wants to run back basically the same team that they had in 2024. He specifically mentioned Willy Adames as a part of their plans but did not talk about the potential loss of Devin Williams.
Diving further into Bowdens’ article, he indicated that if the Brewers were not able to retain Willy Adames that they would replace his offensive production by adding another bat. He specifically indicated that Milwaukee is comfortable with Brice Turang at shortstop. There was no mention of Joey Ortiz taking over at shortstop.
Per Jim Bowden the Brewers are trying to run back the same team as last year that included Willy Adames. However if he leaves they are comfortable moving Brice Turang to shortstop. No mention of Joey Ortiz going to shortstop pic.twitter.com/BSQNqWt0Fl
— Tyler Koerth (@TylerKoerth) November 7, 2024
Devin Williams generated a lot of trade buzz over the GM Meetings
MLB Network Insider Mark Feinsand provided some inside knowledge as to the trade discussions that occurred surrounding Devin Williams at GM Meetings. He confirmed that there were a lot of discussions about Williams being traded, provided some as expected quotes from GM Matt Arnold, and interestingly revealed one key talking point was more so on the timing of when Milwaukee will trade him.
Per Mark Feinsand, Matt Arnold is currently focused on Devin Williams remaining a Brewer, but as expected he acknowledged that he has to remain open to trading him.
“I would say right now that we’re focused on him being a Brewer because he’s really good and really talented. We consider him to be the best closer in baseball; he certainly makes our big league team better and that’s where we’re focused right now.”
-Matt Arnold
From the GM Meetings a rival executive of the Brewers believes that a Devin Williams trade may not occur until closer to the trade deadline. Feinsaid wrote, “A rival executive believes the Brewers could hang on to Williams this offseason, then wait until July, when relievers are always in high demand and contenders are willing to pay more with the postseason in their sights.”
If Milwaukee held onto Devin Williams and traded him in July that would come as a major shock to Brewers fans. A few years ago the team traded Josh Hader at the deadline and it led to the team down spiraling and missing the playoffs. The Brewers are expected to be playoff contenders again in 2025, so an off-season trade would have less of an effect on team chemistry/clubhouse morale and makes more sense.
Follow me on X @tylerkoerth. Follow us @WiSportsHeroics for more great up to date sports content. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in Wisconsin sports, click here!. We cover the Milwaukee Brewers, Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks, Wisconsin Badgers (football, basketball, volleyball, etc), and Wisconsin High School Sports. Additionally we provide the latest news coverage on the NFL, MLB, and NBA in which you can follow Gridiron Heroics, Hardwood Heroics, and Homeplate Heroics.
