It could be another emotional trade deadline for New York Mets infielder Wilmer Flores as the team could be active beyond their pending free agents.
Flores, along with starters Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz, are assets the Mets might decide to cash in addition to the expiring contracts of Jeurys Familia, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jerry Blevins, Jose Bautista and Devin Mesoraco.
The 26-year-old wants to stay with the team that signed him as a 16-year-old as he told Mike Puma of the New York Post, “I don’t want to go anywhere.”
Of course, Flores will always be remembered for the trade that never finalized on July 29, 2015 that had the Mets sending him to the Brewers for outfielder Carlos Gomez.
Flores is under team control through the 2018 and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games on Wednesday night with two hits. In that span, he’s hitting .310/.326/.595 with three doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI.
The right-handed hitter has been getting a majority of the starts recently for the Mets at first base over the past two weeks forcing Dominic Smith to left field and the bench.
For the 2018 season, Flores is hitting .264/.323/.460 with career-high 113 wRC+ and 8.2% walk rate and career-low 10.3% strikeout rate. He has 33 games at first base, four at second and 10 at third.
The Mets realize they will need to trade more than just their rentals if they hope to return to a contender in 2019 and Flores is one name we’re sure to hear swirl in trade rumors.
