If this year's World Series had happened on a slightly different timeline, there's one player who might've been suiting up for the Tampa Bay Rays, or who might've been suiting up for the Milwaukee Brewers.
As it stands, though, that shortstop is now a member of the San Francisco Giants, a team that has underachieved for a while now and wasn't anywhere close to sniffing the 2026 World Series.
That player, as you might have figured out, is Willy Adames.
There aren't a ton of players with crossover between the Rays and Brewers — at least not counting Freddy Peralta, the starting pitcher whose career took him from the Brewers to the Mets to a start for the Rays in World Series Game 3 on Monday night — but Adames is one of them.
It's interesting to consider his path to this point, from two small-market contenders to a coastal larger-market team that has frequently failed to deliver.
Willy Adames didn't actually begin his professional career with the Rays. He signed as a teenaged international free agent with the Detroit Tigers in 2012.
Two years later, Adames was heading to the Rays in a three-team trade. The Rays got Drew Smyly, Nick Franklin and Adames in the deal. The Detroit Tigers got David Price from the Rays. And the Seattle Mariners got Austin Jackson from the Tigers.
Adames then climbed the ladder through the Rays' system to reach MLB in 2018 with Tampa Bay. He hit .278 in his 85-game debut season with 10 home runs, then increased to 20 homers in a full season in 2019.
Adames played 2020 with the Rays, but that was his last full season in Tampa Bay. A rough start to the 2021 season led to his exit.
The Rays cut ties with Adames early in 2021, in May, trading him with Trevor Richards to the Brewers for Drew Rasmussen and J.P. Feyereisen.
That's right, Rasmussen came up in Milwaukee's organization before becoming a standout starter for Tampa Bay — and Adames brings the whole puzzle together.
Adames found himself in Milwaukee, hitting 20 homers in 99 games to close out 2021 with the Brewers. He then hit 31, 24 and 32 homers the next three years.
That play with Milwaukee earned Adames a huge free agent contract with the Giants before the 2025 season. He has slugged 30 and then 21 home runs in two seasons in San Francisco, although his batting average hasn't climbed above .230.
Adames also remains a solid shortstop, which is obviously an important role, but he hasn't quite been the star the Giants were hoping when they signed him.
Still, Adames played a key role for both the Rays and the Brewers — and it's quite fascinating to consider what he would look like if he was still on one of those teams for this World Series.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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