SF Giants agree to a two-year, $13 million extension with infielder Wilmer Flores
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The SF Giants agreed to a two-year, $13 million contract extension with infielder Wilmer Flores that includes a mutual option for 2025. Flores will have a $3.5 million player option for 2025, and if he rejects it, the Giants will have a final $8.5 million club option before he would become a free agent. Joel Sherman of the NY Post was the first to report the deal and its length. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase later reported the financial terms of the first two years.
Flores was set to become a free agent at the end of this season but has arguably been the Giants' best and most consistent position player this year. After earning $3.5 million this season, Flores will receive a significant pay raise to stay in San Francisco.
Flores already has the most plate appearances of his career in 2022 (535). The 10-year MLB veteran has played all over the infield, splitting his time between first, second, and third base. This season, his triple-slash numbers are down from his first two years with the Giants, hitting .235/.319/.414, but he has reached career highs in doubles (26) and home runs (18).
While the first three-year contract given out by Farhan Zaidi has not worked out well, Flores' two-year, $6.25 million deal that included a $3.5 million mutual option for 2022 has easily been one of San Francisco's best acquisitions since Zaidi became the team's president of baseball operations. In his three seasons with the team, Flores has a .251/.324/.446 triple-slash in 1,172 plate appearances, good for 10% better than an average big-league hitter over that time, according to OPS+.
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Already 31, Flores was unlikely to find an extremely robust free-agent market this offseason given his down year at the plate and limitations as a defender. Per Statcast's Outs Above Average, Flores ranks in just the 20th percentile of infielders this season, grading as a negative defender at second and third base.
There are some reasons to be concerned about Flores' ability to match his previous performances going forward. Flores has only struck out in more than 15% of his plate appearances in two seasons since his rookie campaign. Both of those years were with the Giants. Furthermore, Flores' xBA and xSLG-two stats that use Statcast data to try and estimate a hitter's batting average and slugging percentage are the lowest of his career since 2015.
With that said, none of those things are obvious red flags. Flores' strikeout rate has increased during his tenure with the Giants, but his walk rate has increased significantly over the past two seasons. Patience at the plate is always going to lead to more strikeouts, and Flores' 16.6% K-rate in 2022 is still well above-average.
Furthermore, xBA and xSLG do not take into account how shiftable a player's hitting is. Flores is a right-handed pull hitter, which is harder for teams to use extreme shifts against because the first baseman needs to be close to the bag at first. In fact, Flores has outproduced xBA and xSLG by 19 and 53 percentage points, respectively, since they were introduced in 2015.
Wilmer Flores has been a consistent big-league contributor since he was first called up by the Mets back in 2013. It seems like he has found a new home with the SF Giants after inking a two-year extension to stay with the team through at least 2024.
