There was a time last offseason when it seemed Willy Adames might end up playing full time in The Bronx.
The Yankees had a need in the infield and Adames was near — or perhaps at the top — of their list.
The mutual interest from player and team led to a Zoom call which the shortstop — who ultimately signed with the Giants — called “amazing.”
“I knew it was a possibility for me to play here,’’ Adames told The Post following the Giants’ win over the Yankees in the series opener Friday night at the Stadium. “We had a conversation and it was amazing.”
Adames, who grew up a huge fan of Derek Jeter and wears No. 2 in his honor, was impressed by the Yankees’ sales pitch.
“It was really good and interesting,’’ Adames said of the meeting. “It was very different from everybody else. It was more about me the person than about my stats. I really liked that.”
Aaron Boone was on that call and was similarly impressed with Adames.
“We’re a big fan of that player and getting to talk to him,’’ Boone said Saturday before the Yankees’ 8-4 win. “He’s definitely a guy we were very interested in and really liked.”
The issue, though, was that Adames, who went 2-for-5 on Saturday, was intent on getting his free agent deal done before Christmas and at the time of their meeting, the Yankees were still involved in the Juan Soto sweepstakes, which they ended up losing to the Mets.
They weren’t willing to pay Adames with the possibility of re-signing Soto still out there.
“We were going through the Soto stuff and weren’t able to commit to him, one way or the other,” Boone said. “He went off the board pretty quick there.”
The 29-year-old agreed to a seven-year, $182 million deal with the Giants on Dec. 7, just days before Soto got his 15-year, $765 million contract from the Mets.
“The timeline didn’t work out for them to bring me to New York,’’ Adames said.
Asked why he was so insistent on finding a new home early in free agency, Adames said, “I wanted to do it before Christmas and not wait until January, with not knowing where I was gonna go or who my teammates were gonna be. My thing was to settle early so I could start communicating and building chemistry with my teammates and I’m happy I did.”
Still, prior to singing with San Francisco after four years with Tampa Bay and another four with Milwaukee, Adames said there was a serious pull to go to the Yankees.
“Who doesn’t want to play for the same team your idol played for?” Adames said. “The same city, the same position. It would have been great. But I’m very happy with where I am right now.”
After Adames signed with the Giants and Soto with the Mets, the Yankees pivoted to pitching, signing Max Fried to a seven-year, $218 million deal, the largest contract ever given to a left-handed starter.
Fried became one of the main pieces of the new-look Yankees, who looked to make up for at least some of Soto’s offense by trading for Cody Bellinger and bringing in free agent first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.
Fried has been the lone positive for a rotation that’s struggled without ace Gerrit Cole and, while Goldschmidt has gotten off to a good start after a disappointing end to his time in St. Louis last year, Bellinger has been up and down in the first two weeks of the season.
And they didn’t add another infielder, leaving Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza to split time at third, with DJ LeMahieu set to begin a rehab assignment soon after being sidelined since early in spring training with a strained calf.
