LAKELAND, Fla. — Wilmer De Jesus Flores didn’t come to America as a baseball player.
The Detroit Tigers’ pitching prospect wasn’t anything close to a prospect in 2019, when he traveled from Venezuela, his home country, to visit his older brother in the United States.
“Here’s the thing,” Flores said. “There’s many opportunities here and not much in Venezuela. It’s different.”
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Then, he decided to stick around.
Since Flores’ brother lived in Arizona at the time, he enrolled at Arizona Western College for the 2019-20 academic year and decided to give baseball another chance. Passion for the sport runs deep in his family.
“Yeah, I stayed there,” said Flores, who pitched just 11⅔ innings that season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I found a college and in the second semester, Detroit contacted me. One month later, we had a contract.”
It’s all a bit complicated, so hold tight.
Flores, who turned 21 Sunday, has one year of professional baseball under his belt and earned an invitation to minor-league minicamp in Lakeland, home of the Tigers’ spring training complex. He racked up a whopping 90 strikeouts in 66 innings last season and was one of the youngest pitchers in the Arizona Fall League.
“Wilmer was one of the best arms with some of the nastiest stuff in the Fall League,” one National League scout told the Free Press, requesting anonymity because of his employment. “(He’s) someone who looks like he should have signed for over $1 million, not $20,000. The curveball in particular misses tons of bats.”
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Flores’ brother is Wilmer Alejandro Flores, entering his 10th MLB season and the final season of a three-year contract with the San Francisco Giants. Back in 2019, this Wilmer Flores played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Let the older brother explain.
“He came with my mom to Arizona,” Flores, 30, said. “I wanted him to go to college but still do what he wants, which is playing (baseball). He was healthy, and he did what he did. I was sure if someone gave him the opportunity, he was going to surprise people. But he just needed the chance.”
The Tigers’ Flores, a 6-foot-5, 244-pound right-hander, finished his short-lived college career with a 4.63 ERA, 12 walks and 16 strikeouts in six games as a high-leverage, multi-inning reliever. Arizona Western, by the way, has produced three MLB players in the program’s history: Bengie Molina, Sergio Romo and Ray McDavid.
After the pandemic shut down the 2020 season, the Tigers connected with Flores via a Zoom conference call.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Flores said. “I didn’t meet any scouts.”
The JUCO pitcher signed with the Tigers for a $20,000 bonus as an undrafted free agent in July 2020. Teams were allowed to sign an unlimited number of undrafted players for a maximum bonus of $20,000 because the 2020 MLB draft was limited to five rounds.
“(College) was pretty hard. I didn’t know too much English,” said Flores, who did this interview in English. “That was the hardest thing. The coaches were tough, but I loved that experience. That’s why I’m here right now.”
So, how did he fly under the radar in Venezuela?
Big bro can handle this one, too.
“You have to be there to see what’s going on,” the Giants’ Flores said. “(Scouts) see kids at 12, 13, 14 years old. You have to be a superstar to sign. He wasn’t throwing hard. He had the body and he was big, but he wasn’t throwing hard. They didn’t project him to throw hard. Watching all his friends get signed and he didn’t, it was really disappointing for him.”
“I wasn’t very good,” the Tigers’ Flores recalls.
‘I wish I had the mentality that he has’
Flores’ first season of pro ball in 2021 brought nerves with every outing.
“You have to control that, you know?” he said.
The Tigers converted Flores to a starting pitcher, though he might end up as a back-end reliever in the big leagues. His fastball sits around 95 mph and reaches 98 mph. He started 13 of his 14 games last season, advancing to Low-A Lakeland for 11 starts. In those outings, he posted a 3.40 ERA with 3.7 walks and 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings.
Flores had a 0.54 ERA with six walks and 22 strikeouts in September.
His brother wasn’t surprised.
“I’m telling you, he only needed a chance,” the Giants’ Flores said. “He’s going to do everything it takes to get better. I wish I had the mentality that he has at his age. I would have three or four more years in the big leagues if I had that mentality. He’s really mature. He knows what he wants.”
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To go with the power fastball, the Tigers’ Flores throws a nasty 80-82 mph curveball, an 84-86 mph changeup and a 90-91 mph cutter. He ditched the slider after switching his breaking ball to the curveball.
“(The changeup) is not as good as the fastball and curveball, but pretty good,” Flores said. “The changeup, I’ve been working on here with pitch design and all that stuff. It’s been going pretty good. The cutter is something I can easily get the feel for. It’s not hard for me to throw that pitch.”
Flores used his cutter for roughly 20% of his pitches last season.
“It’s more situational, but the changeup is a pitch that I want to use more,” Flores said, explaining he attended the Tigers’ pitch-design camp before throwing in the Arizona Fall League.
“Pitch design is something new. All the science and new stuff. It was like two weeks of a new experience. I made a lot of improvement in that camp. It was finding a different grip and feel when I throw it.”
The determination to continue developing is something the Tigers can expect.
“He’s focused,” the Giants’ Flores said. “He visualizes something and nothing else matters. Like, I don’t care what you think. I don’t care anybody thinks. You might think I’m crazy, but this is what I’m going for.”
Big leaguer? ‘100%’
In the Arizona Fall League, Flores proved his curveball could fool baseball’s best prospects.
He finished with a 9.95 ERA with 16 walks and 17 strikeouts across 12⅔ innings in six games (three starts). The walks were a problem, but his strikeout numbers and pitch arsenal stood out.
“I loved everything about it,” Flores said. “My performance wasn’t too good, but I loved all the experience, the players and the level. It’s a pretty good level. I loved those two months. Last season I did nice work, and that’s why I played there.”
When facing left-handed hitters in the AFL, Flores’ curveball registered a 64% swing-and-miss rate. Add righties into the equation, and the pitch had a 52% whiff rate overall.
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The curveball’s 52% whiff rate in the AFL ranked in the 97th percentile when compared to MLB right-handed pitchers in the big leagues. (For reference, National League Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes‘ curveball produced a 50.3% whiff rate last year.)
“In college, I was throwing a slider,” Flores said. “When I got signed by the Tigers, I started practicing a curveball. It went well. My curveball is pretty big, and it makes a lot of swings and misses. When I throw it, it (tunnels) like a fastball.”
Flores also got 7 feet of extension when throwing his curveball in the AFL, putting him in the 95th percentile when compared to MLB righties. An extension longer than 6½ feet makes the pitch appear faster to the batter.
The pitcher’s mound is 60½ feet from home plate, so there’s 53½ feet between Flores’ release point and the plate, giving hitters less time to recognize and react to his above-average fastball, devastating curveball and other weapons.
“I was really happy when I heard he was going to the Arizona Fall League,” the older brother said. “I was a prospect and I didn’t get a chance to go to the Arizona Fall League. That means (the Tigers) think big of him. I was really proud. I know it’s huge for baseball players.”
Now that the younger Flores is on the radar, can he advance to MLB? “Yeah, definitely, 100%,” his brother said. “I have no doubt about it.”
The Flores brothers are eager to test their skills against each other at the highest level.
And it’s becoming a possibility.
“I hope I can face him one day, for hopefully one or two years,” the elder Flores said. “My family has been talking about it for two years now. When that moment comes, it’s going to be emotional for everybody.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.