Wilmer Flores (1B/2B/3B, NYM) - Week 22 Waiver Wire Pickups

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OWNED IN: 12% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Opportunity and consistency. Sometimes that is all a player really needs in order to thrive. For most of the season, New York Mets infielder Wilmer Flores has been a utility player that has slotted in all over the infield. Now that he has the first base job, he can finally relax at the plate without a need to press to earn more playing time, ultimately resulting in inferior performance.

Flores is also slotted in at a prime RBI-contributing slot in the lineup, batting third or fourth. In the last 14 days, he has six runs, one HR, and 10RBI to go with a 281 batting average. He has improved his overall play in the second half, raising his batting average to .287. Flores has favorable road matchups against the Cubs and Giants. Currently, he is scheduled to face all lefties this week.

While he is only batting .246 against left-handed pitchers, he has a BABIP of .255 against southpaws that will restrict the average a little bit. Flores’ strikeout rate is awesome this year (8.9%), but it is even better against lefties (7.1%), as is his walk rate (7.9%). He is not in the mold of traditional power-hitting first baseman with a .444 slugging but he does enough to be a decent contributor this late in the season.