He may still only be 19-years old and developing in the low minors for the New York Mets, but infielder Wilmer Flores needs to be recognized more frequently from now on. He's putting up big minor league numbers that could give him an express ticket to pro baseball.
The Mets signed Flores as an undrafted free agent in 2007 as a very young 16-year old with a lot of upside.
First off, he is flexible on defense. He spends the bulk of his time at shortstop. But he is a tremendous athlete that is fully capable of adjusting to second or third base. This will come in handy when it comes time for him to compete for a spot in the Mets infield.
He is an excellent contact hitter. In 66 games with the Savannah Sand Gnats this year, he hit .278. It was good enough to facilitate his promotion to A-Adv. St. Lucie, where he has only improved upon his hitting. In 30 games, he is raking with a .354 average and 46 hits.
He has a little bit of pop that has plenty of time to develop. He hit seven home runs with Savannah, and three with the St. Lucie Mets. For the most part, he's strictly a top-of-the-order kind of hitter that knows how to put the ball in play but there is room for the power to grow.
He doesn't quite have the speed of a leadoff batter, which could work against him. He also isn't any Rey Ordonez in the field, but he gets the job done.
A career .288 hitter in the minors over the course of 3 years, Flores is pretty well-disciplined. He does a good job of avoiding strikeouts and turning pitchers counts into hits. The biggest concern about his bat is his patience. He needs to learn to draw more walks, but that comes with age.
Some of his class A-Adv. splits are impressive. In these last 30 games with St. Lucie, he's batting .406 with runners in scoring position. He's also 17-34 against left-handed pitching.
Wilmer Flores is emerging as a very good looking all-around positional prospect. His defensive flexibility will allow him to adhere to the needs of the Mets organization, so if he doesn't get traded, he'll likely have a future with the club.
At this rate, Flores may very well see his first Major League action by the age of 20.
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