Player review: Wilmer Flores

Flores had a bum knee in 2024; he’ll probably still have one in 2025.

2024 stats: 71 G, 242 PA, .206/ .277/ .318 (.595 OPS), 72 OPS+, -0.6 bWAR

The 2024 season over, Farhan Zaidi fired, the entire organization ready to rebuild, rethink (read re-tread), ready to turn to the next page, and there he was. His name accepting his player option; his name activated off the 60-day IL; his name occupying a valuable spot on the 40-man roster. Here is the poet Buster Posey primed to pen the next great franchise history lyric…flummoxed by a clunky ink-blot smudging the potential of the page.

What rhymes with Wilmer Flores ?

Errrgghghhmmphhfff — I had kind-a, definitely forgot that Flores was on the team. Can you blame me? His last plate appearance came against LA on July 23rd. His last start came three days prior. His last game with notable contributions, a month and half before that.

In the early months of the season, I remember Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper reassuring viewers from the booth after Flores at-bats. Ten-year veterans know how to handle slumps. They know how to adjust. .260 hitters can’t help but be .260 hitters. He’ll come around, he’ll revert back to his mean.

It never happened. Flores spent two months swinging in the dark, fumbling around for the light switch and never found it. His .206 average was a 12 year career low. His .277 OBP and .318 SLG were his lowest since his first taste of Major League pitching, an extended cup of coffee as a 21 year old. Arguably, the hitting highlight of the season is him working a walk-off walk on the night the Giants honored Willie Mays.

The reason for the dip isn’t hard to pinpoint. Flores had tendonitis in his right knee, an issue that had probably nagged him from Opening Day. The back knee couldn’t carry his weight. He couldn’t load his swing properly, making it hard to prime his hips and generate power.

Watch as the pitcher starts his motion, Flores’s whole body leans onto his back leg. The right knee bends, sticking out from his silhouette, like an archer pulling back the string of their bow.

A compromised knee, a frayed string — it just doesn’t work very well. Flores has never been an expected-stat darling, but even by his standards the numbers he was posting in these categories were low. A 27% Hard-Hit rate was his lowest since 2017 and five points lower than last year. His average exit velocity dropped. His xSLG fell from .437 in 2023 to .339. All the typical bat-to-ball skills were there, just without the pop.

A flat, de-fizzed Flores was a notable absence for the San Francisco Giants line-up. Let’s not forget that he was San Francisco’s most significant source of power in 2023. He slashed .284/.355/.509 and posted a 2.6 bWAR over 126 games, a hair behind LaMonte Wade Jr. for highest on the club (among position players). His .863 OPS and 137 OPS+ led the team by a significant margin while pacing the club with 23 homers. All of those marks were also career highs.

Expecting him to replicate those peaks was admirably optimistic (most people with beating hearts like and root for Wilmer), but I think it’s fair that no one quite expected his bat to be so hollowed out. Pair that with Jorge Soler’s penchant for smoked singles and Chapman’s sluggish start, and the right-side of the plate proved anemic. Surprise performances by Heliot Ramos and Tyler Fitzgerald helped patch the hole, but obviously these rookie shocks would’ve been a lot more consequential if they occurred in tandem with the veterans’ expected, counted on, clout. Four .800 OPSes in a lineup are better than two — who woulda thought? Just after the All-Star Break, both Soler was traded, his contract off-loaded, Flores to the IL for knee surgery.

Zaidi signed Flores to a two-year deal worth $6.25 million in 2020 with the Giants exercising a $3.5 million club option for 2022 after he posted a 111 OPS+ over 139 games during that magical mirage of a season. Flores’s infamous demi-swing sent the club spiraling off into an indecisive, purgatorial space. After 2022, a year in which he won the Willie Mac Award less for his on-field performance but as a stalwart club presence, Flores signed a 2-year, $16.5 million extension with one of those in vogue player options tacked on the end of it.

It makes sense that Farhan signed him twice with a deal that will see him through his early-30s. He checked all the boxes for the previous administration: a bat with a power upside at a nice price, disciplined approach, some defensive utility (especially early on in the tenure).

Farhan feels far gone after the flurry of hires and ongoing staff exodus this past month. It’s Grand POBO Posey’s house now — the sticky bit is just the digs come already furnished, already cluttered with the previous tenant’s furniture, odd decorations and aesthetic inclinations. Wilmer Flores is the clunky futon in the corner of the back room. Upholstered, a little ratty, too cumbersome to move — how did they finagle it through the door in the first place?

I’m sure Posey, to a certain extent, would prefer to deal with an empty room and furnish it from scratch, but that’s not the reality. Nor is the fact that Flores as Farhan’s man precludes him from being Posey’s, who is searching for hitters that are less launch-angle and exit-velo inclined and more concerned with a “holistic” approach guided by “innate abilities” at the plate.

Posey is looking for more Poseys, and frankly, Flores comes from that mold. His career 13.7 K% is eight percentage points below the league average. In 2024, his 13.6 K% was second lowest on the team other than Jung Hoo Lee. His 35.7 Productive Out% was one of the highest on the club and well above league average. With a runner on third and less than two outs, 66.7% (8 of 12) of those scored after Flores’s at-bat, a success rate tied for second best after Luis Matos’s 81.8% mark.

On paper, Flores possesses those coveted adaptable hitting qualities coupled with power that could facilitate a bounce back year. In my mind, this is what saves him from trade or release in the offseason. It won’t guarantee much, but it might buy him some time (unless, of course, the Giants sign someone like Paul Goldschmidt to a one year deal).

If on the roster to start 2025, he’ll get some playing time as a DH and as a first baseman against lefties. He’ll come off the bench in late-game scenarios. He’ll hit some sacrifice flies, move some runners over, blast one out every now and then… though don’t expect anything sustained. Flores is 33 now which is pretty close to 34 which is SO OLD. And don’t forget that trick knee. The swing is contingent on the lower half, and Flores’s value comes from his swing. The chances of him getting back to full health (as well as maintaining a clean bill) while producing like he did in 2023 or 2021 feel pretty dang slim. I can’t imagine he’ll have much of a safety net if he stops hitting, especially if another bat like Jerar Encarnacion or David Villar or Bryce Eldridge starts.

As of right now, the Flores futon remains in the house. It’s probably more work to move it, and who knows, it might come in handy every so often — until then, just bury it under some laundry.