Wilmer Flores is a good player. This year, Wilmer Flores has been a fun player. He’s the frontrunner for the Willie Mac Award (source: me, from two months ago, when I decided that was true based on zero inside information). He’s been clutch, with a couple of late homers that ended up winning games, including this one, a walk-off against the Phillies:
I am not complaining that the Giants signed Flores to a 2-year extension with an option for a third year, basically the same deal that he signed before the 2020 season. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable deal for a nice player at a good price. It works just fine for everyone.
And yet.
When Farhan Zaidi was hired, he was billed as an innovative mind who would do things differently. He would find new, exciting ways to improve the team. He would make the Giants the model franchise not just of today, but of tomorrow. Finally, after years of doing things in a more old-fashioned way, the team would be the standard bearer for a new kind of baseball.
That new kind of baseball turned out to be “dive in a LOT of dumpsters.” It didn’t not work! They found some good players that they would not have otherwise found, and that’s great, and we all treasure the memories we made together. But there was no sea change in strategy, no 15-point plan that ended up in the Red Sox trading the Giants a superstar for some dumbshit reason.
Instead, the Giants tried to improve, but without giving up inventory. So they dove in those dumpsters, but didn’t trade Madison Bumgarner or Will Smith at the deadline in 2019; they gave up future depth in Trevor Rosenthal and Matthew Boyd at the deadline this year, but no one on the active roster other than Darin Ruf, who they replaced with JD Davis, a Darin Ruf simulacrum.
So to see the Giants locking up the bird in the hand instead of finding something better in the bush, well, it’s a little dispiriting. Because this team isn’t good enough, and while Wilmer Flores is a perfectly fine player, “perfectly fine” is about where his ceiling maxes out. The team needs players with higher ceilings than that. That’s why Lewis Brinson is an interesting move. Sure, he probably won’t hit that ceiling and become a 4-win player. But he might! Wilmer Flores definitely won’t.
At the same time, though, it’s not like it’s a bad idea to keep a nice player around at a low cost. The Giants offense has struggled with consistency this year, and other than this month, Flores has consistently been an above-average hitter. That’s important, especially going forward.
And yet, that’s one more roster spot going to someone who definitely won’t be a star next year. Brandon Crawford, already declining, is not going to be a star next year. Thairo Estrada, another perfectly fine player, is not going to be a star next year. If they bring back Evan Longoria, another reasonable move, he’s likely to be a good player who misses some time and isn’t a star anymore.
Where does the improvement come from? Where is the turnaround? Is the team entirely banking on David Villar for that? Are they going to sign Trea Turner or Dansby Swanson for it? Every decent player isn’t a bad player, but he also isn’t a great one, which this team needs.
I like Wilmer Flores. I’ll be happy to root for him for a while. But is he going to be a big part of getting the Giants back to the playoffs? He’s not doing that this year, and he’s having the exact kind of season you’d expect. Why would 2023 be any different?
I understand why the Giants extended Flores. It makes sense. It also represents a lack of something, either ambition or confidence, to make the roster better. The roster needs to be better next year. That’s one spot where it won’t be, but at least it shouldn’t be worse.