Mets promote Wilmer Flores

The Mets have promoted top hitting prospect Wilmer Flores. He is en route to New York, which was announced by the team on Twitter last night. Flores, whose 22nd birthday is today, played primarily first base and third base for the Las Vegas 51s this season. He has hit .321 with 15 homers and 86 RBI on the season. It is assumed that Flores will be spending most of his time as the team's third baseman as David Wright is currently on the 15 day disabled list.

 

The team originally signed Flores out of Venezuela as a 16 year old back in 2007. He was a highly touted player in the organization for quite some time, and was rated in the Top 100 prospects list by Baseball America in the 2009-2011 seasons. As an 18 year old, Flores was elected to start at second base in the 2009 All-Star Futures Game.  In 2011, he was converted from a shortstop to a third baseman.

 

I've been preaching Flores for quite some time now, and I'm ecstatic that he will finally be promoted to the majors. It was getting ridiculous for quite some time, considering that Flores is versatile and capable of playing first base. With Ike Davis' struggles, Flores would be a good upgrade, even if his defense isn't as solid as Ike's.

 

For the time being, Flores will man the hot corner, and fill in for David Wright. I'm excited to see how he looks at the plate, because judging by his minor league numbers, he has the potential to be a very solid hitter. Also, at 22 years old, there is a good chance we may see him with the Mets for a long time.

 

When Wright returns from the disabled list, the team will have a decision to make. I highly doubt they'll convert Flores back to a shortstop. Perhaps they could finally pull the plug on Ike Davis and send him to the minors for good, and stick Flores at first base.

 

All in all, seeing new faces is always a welcoming sight. Flores should provide a much-needed boost to this current lineup. I'm very interested to see how these coming weeks play out, because sooner or later the Mets will need to promote some of their other top prospects, such as Travis d'Arnaud and Rafael Montero.