Report: Brewers make Adames available after Burnes trade

Trading Corbin Burnes appears to have only been the start of the Milwaukee Brewers' retooling.

Milwaukee has made shortstop Willy Adames available in trade talks, USA Today's Bob Nightengale reports.

Adames' future with the Brewers was already in question even before this week's surprising Burnes trade, as he's also a pending free agent. The acquisition of shortstop prospect Joey Ortiz from Baltimore in exchange for Burnes may have made Adames more expendable in the immediate term.

While no trade is imminent, general manager Matt Arnold acknowledged this week that there's a real possibility such a deal could present itself.

"It's hard to say," Arnold said Thursday when asked about Adames, according to Todd Rosiak and Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "As we've discussed in the past, sometimes these deals come together very quickly and in other cases, they take a long time. I'm certainly open to more conversations. I certainly wouldn't shut any conversations down at this point in the offseason."

Adames hit .217/.310/.407 over 149 games for the Brewers last season, marking the second straight year that his overall slash line and OPS declined. However, he did lead the team in both home runs (24) and RBIs (80) while tallying eight defensive runs saved and 16 outs above average at shortstop.

The 28-year-old was originally acquired by the Brewers from the Tampa Bay Rays in May 2021. He broke out as a hitter after arriving in Milwaukee and received some down-ballot MVP votes that year, but hasn't been able to replicate that form again, save for his power numbers.

Adames and the Brewers avoided arbitration last month by agreeing to a $12.25-million contract for 2024.