Willy Adames vs. Carlos Correa: Who would you take over the next 5 years?

The San Francisco Giants have finally landed a big fish. It only took the better part of a decade and the individual with the largest deal in franchise history to make it happen. Shortstop Willy Adames now holds that distinction, however, as his reported seven-year deal for $182 million tops that of new president of baseball operations Buster Posey.

The Giants, and perhaps Posey, found themselves in this position partly because the club's 13-year, $350 million pact with Carlos Correa two winters ago fell through over concerns about his medicals. While Correa is coming off another All-Star (yet abbreviated) season, the Twins are reportedly open to trading the 30-year-old despite four years left on his contract. The 29-year-old Adames, meanwhile, is coming off perhaps the best year of his career with the Brewers.

That prompted the following debate between our MLB writers: 

Money being equal, who would you rather have for the next five years, Willy Adames or Carlos Correa?

Rowan Kavner: This is a close call considering Adames' durability and home run ability, but I have to go with the upside of Correa. He's a year older with a concerning injury history, but he's also a three-time All-Star, former Rookie of the Year and Platinum Glove winner and, as his .905 OPS this year demonstrated, a potential MVP contender when he's healthy. The downside, of course, is that he often isn't.

Adames is a much better bet to actually stay on the field. He's a consistently above-average player who just produced a career year offensively, though his high strikeout and whiff rates cap his offensive ceiling. The highest wRC+ Adames has produced in a season was 126 (he was 26% better than league average offensively in the shortened 2020