Detroit Tigers: Wilmer Flores making a name for himself in 2022

Detroit Tigers prospect Wilmer Flores made the most of his 2022 season.

The Detroit Tigers signed Wilmer Flores as an undrafted free agent after the 2020 shortened MLB Draft. The right-hander has started to make a name for himself and found himself climbing up the ranks of the Top-30 prospect list and backing it up with his on-the-field performance.

It has to be nice for Scott Harris to come to the Detroit Tigers organization and know he still has a Wilmer Flores around. Jokes aside, Wilmer Flores and Wilmer Flores share the same name, with the latter being an infielder with the San Francisco Giants.

The Tigers Wilmer Flores has spent his season with the Double-A Erie Seawolves after a quick promotion from the High-A West Michigan Whitecaps. He has shown that he has improved his stuff and has continued to get better, stepping up during the 2022 season.

Flores earned himself some honors recently for his performance this summer between the two affiliates. Baseball America crowned Flores as the Minor league Player of the Year for the Detroit Tigers. An honor that truly speaks to the high level of performance that Flores showed.

Flores seemingly has settled in nicely and is turning himself into a legit prospect, and someone who it feels like has a future with the Tigers organization, barring an overhaul once Harris takes over.

His performance has warranted another look at the righty to ensure they are making the right decision regarding his future. It feels like Flores has a chance to stick in a big league rotation.

Detroit Tigers prospect Wilmer Flores took leaps in 2022.

With the Seawolves, Flores turned on the performance, pitching to a 3.01 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP, and punching out 95 hitters over 83.2 innings of work. He’s been exceptional this summer, showing why he deserves to be kept around.

He’s got a four-pitch repertoire with a fastball/curveball/cutter/changeup that he mixes. It’s truthfully more of a three-pitch mix, not showing the changeup as often, but he will throw the curveball in any count and is not afraid to start the at-bat with a breaking ball.

He’ll work backward and pitch effectively to miss barrels. He commands the zone well, something that Scott Harris should enjoy about him, throwing strikes and working efficiently. Flores has a lot to like, and even only with Double-A, there is reason to believe he has the traits to keep getting better and advancing through the organization.

The Tigers should hope Flores will be a future rotational piece for this team if everything goes well. Decisions have to be made, and a roster purge is coming, heck, an organizational purge is coming, but Floresdoing so well in 2022 leads me to believe he warrants the chance to keep working upward with the Tigers.