TIJUANA, Mexico — Wilmer Flores sat in the home dugout at Toros Mobil Park this week, far from the American metropolises where he endeared himself, yet not all that far removed from the game of his life. It was only a year ago Saturday, as a San Francisco Giant, that he hit three home runs and drove in eight runs in a 9-1 victory over the Athletics to move into a tie with Aaron Judge for the major-league RBI lead.
And it was the next night, in front of another sellout crowd at Oracle Park, that Flores beat the A’s again. Facing Mason Miller, the hardest-throwing reliever in baseball, he fouled off two triple-digit fastballs, laid off consecutive close pitches and drew a bases-loaded, walk-off walk in the 10th inning. The Giants improved to 27-19, including 17-5 in games in which Flores drove in at least one run.
However, when spring training opened this February, the infielder who once touched an entire city with his tears was still without a job. Flores had endured prolonged free agency in his previous stints on the open market. But this time, no one made a major-league offer. The Colorado Rockies, Flores said, were the lone team to extend a non-roster invitation. Flores declined it, figuring he faced long odds of breaking camp with one of the league’s youngest clubs.
“Yeah, I was disappointed,” Flores said. “I definitely feel like I could help somebody.”
Flores, 34, has come to embody how the Statcast-driven evolution of his sport is pushing out accomplished players. In March, he signed with the Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican Baseball League. After those two magical days in San Francisco, he had plummeted back to earth. He completed what might have been his final major-league campaign with 16 home runs, 71 RBIs and a .686 OPS that helps explain why he is here, competing in a foreign environment.
“I know baseball has changed a lot. A lot of looking for people to hit the ball hard. And a lot of metrics and all that stuff,” said Flores, who compiled 169 home runs across parts of 13 big-league seasons. “A lot of good players that … can play baseball, but they don’t have the exit velo or the slugging. It doesn’t mean you can’t play in the big leagues. It just means that, you know, there’s just a lot of players.”
“I still have a lot to give…staying ready.”
13-year MLB veteran Wilmer Flores joined #MLBNHotStove to discuss his offseason training, the free agency process and more! pic.twitter.com/sg5Bj2PP33
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 8, 2026
Last year, Flores maintained his reputation for big hits, delivering a .963 OPS in FanGraphs’ definition of high-leverage situations. He also ranked near the bottom of the majors in such categories as average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and expected slugging percentage. He spent most of his time as a designated hitter and logged one of the game’s slowest average sprint speeds. He is seven years younger than Justin Turner, a former New York Mets teammate and another Toros newcomer.
Among big leaguers who took at least 200 swings, Turner recorded the 12th-slowest average bat speed. Flores finished with the sixth-slowest.
Turner describes the player who was dead-last in those rankings as a “unicorn.” But even Luis Arraez, with his limited power and speed, settled in February for a modest one-year contract — this after the Toros reached out to the three-time batting champion.
That was when Arraez inadvertently eliminated one of Flores’ few potential options.
“I went back and forth with the Giants asking if they wanted a reunion, but they said they were looking for a second baseman before they signed Arraez,” Flores said. “If they didn’t sign Arraez, they said maybe I had a chance to come back. But they signed Arraez, and it never happened.”
Flores, in turn, has settled for regular reminders of a past life. When big-league spring training was almost over, he instructed his agent to contact the Toros, who play their home games just 20 miles from Petco Park. Like Turner, Flores now plays with or against former teammates — Robinson Canó, J.D. Davis and Phillip Evans, to name a few. Like Turner, Flores commutes to Mexico from a temporary stateside residence.
“San Diego,” Flores said, “is my favorite city.”
On either side of the border, Flores often hears from members of multiple fan bases that continue to cherish him. It was more than a decade ago that he cried at Citi Field after learning the Mets had agreed to trade him to the Milwaukee Brewers. Then, to widespread delight, New York backed out of the deal.
Flores, already a well-liked teammate, went on to establish himself as the franchise’s leader in walk-off RBIs. In 2020, he brought his reputation as a timely hitter and steady professional to the Giants. In San Francisco, as in New York, the theme song from “Friends” became synonymous with a Venezuela native who honed his English by watching the popular sitcom.
In Mexico, Flores no longer requests the same music.
“If that was my walk-up song, they’d say I’m crazy,” he said with a smile.
Roberto Kelly played 14 seasons in the majors and won three World Series as a coach for the Giants. Early last decade, he was coaching in the Venezuelan Winter League when he encountered a teenager with exceptional contact skills and unremarkable athleticism.
Flores is enjoying his time in Tijuana, but it’s clear he had hoped for something different. (Courtesy of Tijuana Toros)
All these years later, Kelly is managing a much older version of the same player.
“The game is changing so much,” the Toros’ first-year manager said. “They’re looking for younger guys now. … Wilmer, he could still be playing up there, but unfortunately, that’s the way it is.”
“The fact that he didn’t have a job … it’s crazy,” Turner said.
Is Flores playing to prove he deserves another opportunity at the highest level?
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know where this takes me, honestly. I’m here today, I’m still playing baseball. But I don’t really know, honestly. If I go back, it’d be great, because that’s where you want to play.”
On Tuesday night, while the Giants and their struggling offense scored an upset of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Turner supplied a first-inning homer for the first-place Toros. Flores went hitless, walked and scored a run.
It had been 361 days since he smashed three home runs during the performance of his career.
“I mean, it was a great game,” Flores said. “I’m able to put the barrel on the ball most of the time. Not as hard as people want, but yeah, it was a good game.”
As he sat in the dugout, Flores was not far from the country where he became a fan favorite on two coasts.
“I told my mom the other day, ‘I just woke up from a dream. I was playing in the big leagues,’” he said. “A lot of times, you just go through the motions and you don’t appreciate what you have. But I’m playing baseball, doing what I like, and we’ll see where we go from there.”
