Faith in SF Giants veteran bat continues to pay dividends after career game

This offseason, it seemed like a distinct possibility that the SF Giants would move on from veteran first baseman Wilmer Flores. He struggled mightily in 2024 and dealt with injury, but the Giants sure are glad they kept him around.

On Friday night, Flores hit three home runs, including a grand slam and a three-run homer while driving in eight runs on the night. It was a career game for Flores, and the Giants should feel supremely lucky they are getting this kind of production out of him.

SF Giants are very lucky they did not move on from Wilmer Flores

Now, Flores is tied for the MLB lead in RBI with Aaron Judge at 41. Just how we all drew it up at the beginning of the season, right?

When Flores opted into his $3.5 million player option in the offseason, it was still uncertain whether the Giants would cut him or not. There were other enticing first basemen available in free agency like Paul Goldschmidt and Christian Walker, but ultimately the Giants decided to keep Flores.

After all, he was just one year removed from a 2023 season when he essentially carried the team offensively and hit 23 home runs. In 2024 he was clearly battling a knee injury which ended his season prematurely. Now that he is healthy though, we are seeing the Flores we became accustomed to in his first four seasons with the Giants.

Whether he can keep it up throughout the rest of this season is another question. If he can, my chants of "MVP" as he rounded the bases for his third home run trot of the night on Friday may not seem so ludicrous.

Some regression to the mean is probably to be expected, but the Giants have already gotten much more than they ever could have expected from Flores coming into this season. Since Opening Day when he hit a go-ahead three-run homer against the Reds, it has seemed like Flores is on a mission. He clearly does not want his time in San Francisco to end on a whimper and it certainly has not with how hot his bat has been this season.

It is one of the wonders of baseball that a guy getting paid $3.5 million can end up being arguably the best hitter on your team, but the Giants are certainly glad they still have their friend Wilmer on the team and that he has been there for them in 2025.