When one has watched major league baseball players compete for over six decades one has seen thousands of players plying their trade. And while no two of them are identical there are so many similarities that it is easy to spot a rookie and immediately feel that he compares favorably to someone you’ve seen before.
Take Michael Conforto for instance. When he burst on the scene last year we Mets fans had visions of a Ted Williams-lite knock off, a defensively challenged lefty LFer with a sweet swing capable of producing power and a high batting average. The Splendid Splinter was a pure pull hitter which Conforto appeared not to be as he skillfully used all of the field. As reality set in one adjusted the comp to still another very able outfielder: Carlos Gonzalez. Then April of 2016 passed and Conforto was showing more Seth Smith than Gonzalez. And now that he has hit rock bottom and is revisiting AAA Las Vegas again one has to fear that Conforto will have more in common with the former Yankee flame out Kevin Maas.
But when the subject at hand is Wilmer Flores his uniqueness stands out. Let’s look at his characteristics and see if anyone has been appreciably like him.
Flores is slow. There is no denying the fact that he does not run well. Flores starts slow and it does not get much better once he’s reached full tilt. How might he fare in a foot race with Rene Rivera and James Loney? Certainly it would be close. As the old joke goes you could time that race with a sundial.
But Rivera and Loney don’t try to play middle infield positions. You stick slow guys at first or behind the dish. Here are the positions and number of games started by Flores in his major league career.
| positions | games started |
|---|---|
| SS | 148 |
| 3B | 70 |
| 2B | 53 |
| 1B | 9 |
You probably know the story by now that Flores was signed very young and started his professional career at age 16. Through his age 19 season he played at the low levels almost exclusively as a shortstop but the scouting sites all expected him to be moved off the position as he moved up the ladder. He was a second baseman and third baseman during his age 20 to 22 seasons. In 2014, his second year in the majors, he was given the task of playing some shortstop. In 2015 he was the Mets’ primary shortstop.
Has anyone so ponderously slow ever been given the assignment to play that crucial position regularly? Probably not. There have been some slow second basemen and certainly plenty of slow third baseman. Brooks Robinson, a brilliant fielder, was not fleet of foot. But he had a lightning quick first step and a fluid rapid release. Flores has neither of those. Ken Boyer was also not much of a runner but had the quick first step and strong accurate arm.
Flores has a strong arm but one that takes time to trigger. How many times have we seen Flores have trouble getting the ball out of his glove and on its way to first base? Many. He sometimes takes the extra half step that is the difference between an out and safe call at first.
This player’s lack of speed means that playing him in the outfield would be out of the question and while his bat would play as a catcher his slow release puts the kibosh on that idea.
Flores’ stance and hitting approach is irregular. My late father used to call the Yankees’ Bill Skowron, “The Lunger.” By that he meant that Skowron hit with his arms and upper body without relying on a leg drive for power. Flores is also a lunger. But Skowron stood erect in the box with his bat facing straight up and down. Flores has his bat cocked toward the pitcher somewhat like the way his teammate Travis d’Arnaud does.
For a large strong young man it is unfortunate that instructors at the lower minor league levels did not (or were not able to) reconfigure his approach while showing him how to shift his power from his back leg to his front leg. It is certainly possible that had they successfully done so Flores could have been a 30 HR a year first baseman.
Flores is a very competent hitter against left handed pitching.
Here are his stats as of a few days ago showing both his 2016 stats and career marks.
| Split | PA | HR | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | vs RHP | 175 | 4 | 0.208 | 0.269 | 0.321 | 0.589 |
| 2016 | vs LHP | 85 | 8 | 0.354 | 0.400 | 0.696 | 1.096 |
| Split | PA | HR | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
| career | vs RHP | 852 | 20 | 0.250 | 0.283 | 0.369 | 0.652 |
| career | vs LHP | 293 | 15 | 0.267 | 0.321 | 0.489 | 0.810 |
That .600 OPS against righties is pretty bleak. But put a southpaw on the hill and Flores can rake. Any team could use a guy who can reliably hit lefties but the Mets need that skill more than most since they are so left handed as a team.
One player who comes to mind this year as a bit similar to Flores is the Cardinals’ Jedd Gyorko. Gyorko is also a righty who has played all the infield positions and is horribly miscast at shortstop. Unlike Flores who is a lefty killer Gyorko has done most of his damage against righties (.909 OPS against righties, .623 against lefties).
Flores will likely have a reasonable major league career doing what he can which is hitting lefties and playing all the infield positions, albeit poorly. One is tempted to assert that he will never make an All Star team but three years ago one would not have expected Daniel Murphy to make one. Since then he’s made it twice and now is on the short list for NL MVP. So we won’t say never about Flores but it’s a long shot.
Limited
As someone who has celebrated four decades of watching players, I feel Flores has more room to grow than any player I can remember, but it bothers me that he hasn’t yet. His shortcomings:
1. On defense, he lacks focus. Too often we have seen half assed plays and while he has shown a strong arm, he would rather bury a throw than risk putting it in the seats. That’s a confidence issue he should have surpassed. Also, when the ball goes under his glove, I want to see anger, not a grin.
2. As a hitter, he is savvy enough to understand that contact is the prerequisite to getting a hit, and bravo to Flores who doesn’t look at having gaudy stats but rather being effective. It’s why Backman lauded him as an RBI guy. He cashes in more runners than his teammates. However, he needs to learn how to use his legs.
3. Flores appears to be very comfortable at second base and is complemented on turning double plays. Too, he hits best there as it is his comfort zone. The Mets should consider him at that position and stop the musical chairs garbage that puts Conforto in CF as well.
“It’s why Backman lauded him as an RBI guy.”
Ah, the myth of the RBI guy. The “clutch hitter.”
It’s why Wally Backman will never manage in the majors.
He has the worst arm of any person in our system from the left side. No only is he ponderously slow, that slowness eats time that it takes for hiom to rev up by double and triple clutching just to must the power to bounce it 1B or throw wildly off line. He make a majority of his errors throwing. I would not park him left of second base for any reason. He is a net loss. I like Wilmer at 2B. His batting splits used to show his highest OPS from 2B. He can make the throw, be ok turning a DP, especially if assisted by an athlete at SS, and has glove talent about like Murph. I think he becomes a net asset from second base. That said, I’d reup Walker well ahead of that and if that fails get Cecchini in and make it a death match. I have not looked at FA second basemen yet, preferring to wimper over how bad the 3B situation is.
He does not profile as an everyday player… his fielding and throwing problems are 85% about his feet. He’s working against his nature and a Maturing, Big Body. There are slow guys with good feet—he’s a slow guy with sluggish feet—heavy impact on his fielding and throwing.
The correct move would have been to convert him to catcher early on.
He has some upside as a hitter— he can “almost field” 4 positions…if he hammers, he can stick….probably an upside as a DH…but he has no chance of doing anything else well.
I was thinking the same thing about him. Why not convert him to catcher.
He’s slow as shit. He has good hands. Does he have the arm?
He just can’t cover ground in the infield.
Bob4Health
Eraff and Bob, I like the C re-positioning, but he cannot make the throw to 2B. He struggles so bad to go third to first when he is upright and has momentum, but from a crouch, he would make TdA look like Johnnie Bench!
Flores at C would be a disaster. I’d rather see him in LF and it’s not that I think he would be good there, either.
I hope we can trade him in the offseason. I’d rather re-sign Kelly Johnson and have he and Reyes as the backup infielders.
Total agreement.
I agree that “Flores will likely have a reasonable major league career doing what he can which is hitting lefties and playing all the infield positions, albeit poorly.”
Will that career be mostly with the Mets? Flores is out of options, so for those who think he should convert to catcher that boat has sailed. Flores is not an everyday player and he has enough major league at bats to label him “not an everyday player”.
Would you start Flores over Reyes at SS or 3B? Not me. Would you start him over Kelly Johnson (who has inverted career splits) at 3B? Not me. The only position that Flores should get playing time is in a platoon with Loney. He is a good hitter vs LHP and that sole attribute defines Flores uniqueness
Flores is a hair above replacement level after 1156 plate appearances in the majors.
This was entirely predictable once five years in the minors showed Flores had no real position on the diamond–no position he could play well enough to justify his bat.
Wilmer Flores, quintessential AAAA player. It took the Mets four years to figure out what his minor league record was shouting at them by 2012.