A decade after crying on the field amid trade rumors, Wilmer Flores is glad he's still a Giant

New York Times

2 days ago

NEW YORK — Maybe it wasn't the most important consequence of the Giants' winless homestand in San Francisco last week. If they didn't lose six games to the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates, then Tyler Rogers probably isn't a Met, Camilo Doval probably isn't a Yankee and Mike Yastrzemski probably isn't hitting home runs as a Kansas City Royal.
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But the saddest consequence of the week that wasn't? Wilmer Flores, the precocious, 2 1/2-year-old version known as Baby Flo, wasn't allowed to go cavorting in the Giants' clubhouse after games all week. Manager Bob Melvin's team rules allow players' kids to be in the locker room after wins but not losses. Good luck trying to explain that to Baby Flo.
'Oh, my God, I know. He's been so mad about it,' said Baby Flo's father, Giants first baseman Wilmer Flores. 'We lose a game, he stays in the family room, crying, because he wants to come in.'
Displaying emotion must be a family trait. Ten years ago, on July 29, Flores learned that he'd been traded from the Mets to the Milwaukee Brewers in the middle of a game. He was visibly upset, wiping his eyes with his jersey sleeves and trying to compose himself to be ready for a ground ball on the infield. The infamous trade never went through — the Mets flagged something on outfielder Carlos Gomez's medical review — but the scene forever endeared Flores to Mets fans.
A decade's worth of trade deadlines later, when the Giants arrived at Citi Field for a weekend series against the Mets, Flores experienced more than a homecoming. There was a little déjà vu thrown in as well. Rogers had spent 13 years in the Giants organization, and when he threw his first pitch in a different uniform Saturday night, it happened to be against the Giants. Right-hander José Buttó, one of three players the Mets traded to the Giants, also was seen wiping away tears when he learned of Wednesday's trade while sitting in the visiting bullpen in San Diego. Buttó was in his ninth season in the Mets organization. Like Rogers, his first pitch for another team Friday night game against his former teammates.
Rogers said he had a feeling he might be traded. He even packed a little heavier than usual for the upcoming road trip when he reported to the Giants' waterfront ballpark on Wednesday.
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Buttó was not nearly as prepared, wardrobe or otherwise.
'At first I was very sad, hearing the news,' Buttó said through Spanish interpreter Erwin Higueros. 'But as the hours went by, you start … accepting the fate of what the business of baseball is.'
Buttó traveled on the Mets charter from San Diego and appreciated those extra hours he could spend with his teammates. Rogers did the same, hitching a ride on the Giants' flight to New York. Because Rogers couldn't access his checked luggage, he had to wear his Giants-branded travel sweatshirt and joggers.
'It was kind of a blessing because I got to say goodbye and do stuff on the flight,' Rogers said Friday. 'It actually worked out really well. … Baseball is funny that way, isn't it? To be, I guess, 13 years with the Giants organization, to get traded is new. To go out there and pitch for a new team for the first time ever is going to be weird. And to look up and see a Giants uniform in the batter's box is going to be something new. No real expectations but that. Just take it in stride. It's going to be memorable, for sure. It's the one team I haven't faced yet.'
Buttó made his Giants debut in a difficult situation Friday night, and although he lost the lead on a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, he stranded the other runner he inherited — a key contribution in the Giants' 4-3, 10-inning victory. It was Rogers' turn on Saturday to face his former teammates, entering with a two-run lead and tossing a scoreless seventh inning as the Mets coasted to a 12-6 win.
Rogers gave up a single to Heliot Ramos that deflected off first base, but he got Rafael Devers and Willy Adames to pop up and coaxed a ground out from Matt Chapman.
'We knew we were going to see it at some point,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said. 'I'm sure it was just as uncomfortable for him, or weird.'
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Rogers and Yastrzemski are impending free agents. So is Flores, who likely would've been dealt if a contending team expressed interest. It might seem hard to believe, but Flores, who turns 34 on Wednesday, has more service time as a Giant than he does with any other major league team. He said he didn't spend much time wondering if he'd be traded. He's been conditioned to understand the business side of the game and to worry about what he can control.
A decade ago? Not so much.
'I had a lot of guys reach out to me, telling me, like, 'I cried like a baby too, but I wasn't on the field. Bartolo Colon told me, 'My first trade, I cried for, like, a whole day. But I was in the clubhouse. Nobody saw it.' … It's a fantasy that you think you're gonna play for one team your whole career,' Flores said.
'If you ask someone about Wilmer Flores, the first thing that comes to mind is 2015, right? Giants fans will remember me as a Giant, I guess. But everybody else, they don't remember the homers I hit or anything. They just remember me crying. I didn't know the business part of the game. I didn't even know I could get traded. Like I said, it was a fantasy. But you learn as the years go.'
Flores was out of the lineup Saturday with a tender hamstring he felt while trying to beat out a ground ball a night earlier. It's considered a mild injury, and he expects to be playing again in a day or two. But it's fair to wonder how much longer the Giants will invest plate appearances in someone likely coming to the end of his time with the organization. The Giants never expected Flores to play as much as he has this season. In the first half, when he was the only player consistently driving in runs for long stretches, Melvin couldn't leave Flores on the bench.
For his part, Flores said he is happy he didn't get traded.
'Since I got here, they've treated me right,' Flores said. 'I've gotten a lot of opportunities to play. I'm glad I'm here. We want to make a run for this team. We've got to win a couple games first and then see what we have. … It's the same lineup, right? We have All-Stars here. We have good players. We still have good pitching. It all comes down to executing. It doesn't matter who we're playing. When we execute, we win. It happened (Friday). It's just one game, but when we execute, we win.'
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The Giants did not execute on Saturday. Kai-Wei Teng, a starting pitcher whom the Giants designated for assignment last season, acknowledged feeling nerves when he hit Mets leadoff batter Brandon Nimmo and walked Francisco Lindor ahead of Pete Alonso's three-run home run in the first inning. The Giants tied it on Dom Smith's two-run shot in the third and pushed ahead when Jung Hoo Lee scored on Grant McCray's single in the fourth. But the Mets went back in front in the bottom of the fourth when Smith, playing first base, fielded Lindor's bunt and didn't throw to the plate even though he had a play. Instead, Smith spun around to second base, double-clutched when he saw nobody covering the bag, and didn't record an out.
Even when good things happened for the Giants, there was a bit of calamity involved. Lee ran through third base coach Matt Williams' stop sign while scoring in the fourth. Melvin said Williams was expecting the throw to be cut off, but it appeared that Lee would've scored easily in any event.
When the Mets blew the game open against right-hander Tristan Beck, the Giants looked every bit like a team just trying to make it to the obligatory end.
They'll always have pride to play for. Maybe other factors, too.
'I try to explain to him, no, when we lose a game, you can't come in,' Flores said of his son. 'That's why I try to shower as fast as I can so I can go to him.'
Win for Baby Flo?
'I know,' Flores said, smiling. 'It's a lot of motivation for me.'