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Rafael Flores Jr.

2026
Pirates· C · bats R · throws R· 64 PA
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Grade

How good he's been, and at what
B+better than 70% of hitters at creating bases
Three-Outcome Slugger

Elite power and walks; lives with the strikeouts.

Gets on base by working the count

Rafael Flores Jr. walks at a near-elite clip — better than 89% of qualified hitters. The strikeouts pile up, though — only 17% of qualified hitters whiff more often. Early-season read — only 64 plate appearances so far.

64 plate appearances · data through 2026-08-22.

How to read this chart
Each spoke is a skill estimate adjusted for sample size — not raw season stats — so farther out = better. Spokes are the metric itself; ↓ marks a rate where a LOWER number is better. Percentiles vs. 499 qualified hitters — 50+ plate appearances.

Plays like…

Same archetype, nearest by rate — pick one to see him side by side with Rafael Flores Jr..

Francisco AlvarezMetsDalton RushingDodgersAndrés ChaparroNationalsJorge SolerAngels

Hitter type

What kind of hitter he is, next to the league

Hitter type

Elite contact quality.

How to read this chart
Two skills separate hitting styles: not giving away at-bats (walk rate minus strikeout rate) and squaring the ball up when he does put it in play (hard-hit rate). Every dot is a qualified hitter this season; dot size tracks plate appearances. Click any dot to open that hitter's page.
 Rafael Flores Jr.League medianPercentile
Bases per ball in play(higher = better).885.50870th
Walk rate(higher = better)13%8%89th
Strikeout rate(lower = better)30%23%17th

100th percentile = best in MLB.

Platoon splits

How he fares against lefties and righties

Platoon splits (EB/PA)

Better vs LHP than vs RHP by 0.033 EB/PA (modeled).

50% probable range: +0.014 to +0.053

vs LHP35 PA0.485

vs LHP: shrunk estimate 0.485 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.456 to 0.513, based on 35 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.592 EB/PA. League median vs LHP: 0.425 EB/PA.

Raw vs LHP rate (0.592) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.

vs RHP29 PA0.451

vs RHP: shrunk estimate 0.451 EB/PA, 50% probable range 0.424 to 0.478, based on 29 plate appearances. Raw (unshrunk) rate: 0.721 EB/PA. League median vs RHP: 0.436 EB/PA.

Raw vs RHP rate (0.721) is off this scale — small samples like this are exactly why the shrunk estimate (the dot) is the trustworthy number, not the raw one.

0.4130.4410.4680.4960.523
← worsebetter →
Above league medianBelow50% probable rangeHis raw rateMiddle half of the league

About the typical split for a righty bat (median 0.034). He's above the league median against both hands, so the weaker side is still a strength — not a hole.

He sits in the league's top quarter vs lefties and the league's middle half vs righties.

How to read this chart
  • Tap or hover any mark for its number, or tab to a row for all of them.
  • His raw rate is the unshrunk number against that hand — small samples make it noisy, which is why the model pulls his estimate toward a more trustworthy value.
  • “Middle half of the league” is the 25th–75th percentile of all hitters against that hand.
  • Shrunk splits beat raw splits decisively at low PA counts and converge with them as playing time builds — individual platoon gaps need roughly 1,000+ PA vs a hand before the raw number alone can be trusted.

How he hits

What happens when he puts a ball in play

He hits the ball to the pull side most often, and that's where his hardest contact goes.

Best batted balls

Where every ball Rafael Flores Jr. put in play landed this season.
hit · out
EBlowhigh
vs Kenley JansenHome run
EV 110 mph · LA 30° · EB 3.9
08/19 vs Tigers
vs Justin WrobleskiHome run
EV 109 mph · LA 26° · EB 3.7
06/11 vs Dodgers
vs Jacob WaguespackHome run
EV 106 mph · LA 35° · EB 3.7
08/19 vs Tigers
vs Javier SanojaHome run
EV 101 mph · LA 31° · EB 3.7
08/13 vs Marlins
vs John KingHome run
EV 106 mph · LA 39° · EB 3.4
08/13 vs Marlins

Luck check

2 lucky hits — balls with a hit probability under 20% that found grass.

vs Alec GamboaSingleLucky
EV 70 mph · LA -37° · EB 0.1 · xBA .063
08/14 vs Red Sox
How to read this chart
Dot color is estimated bases (EB) — what the contact was worth, regardless of what the defense did with it. So a dark hollow ring in the outfield is a crushed ball that got caught. Tap or hover a dot or a row to link the two, and use the ▶ links to watch a play on Baseball Savant.

Performance by pitch type

2026 · 261 pitches

Bases he adds per 100 pitches of each type, against the league.

← below leagueabove league →
Four-Seam Fastball (85 pitches)
−3.6
Lg median −0.4Lg best +12.9
Other (176 pitches)

+8.9 bases per 100 · no single-type league comparison

Above league medianBelowMiddle half of the leagueLg medianLg best
How to read this chart
Bases added per 100 pitches of each type — the same scale as the pitcher pages’ “saved/cost per 100”, from the hitter’s side. Every pitch counts: taking a ball adds value, whiffing loses it, and the pitch that ends the plate appearance scores its outcome against the count’s expectation. Values are bases vs the league count-average: +3.5 means his results against that pitch have been worth about 3.5 extra bases per 100 seen. Types with fewer than 50 pitches seen pool into “Other”.

Swing

How fast he swings, and what he changes with two strikes. League tracking starts in 2024.

Swing at a glance

2026 · data through 2026-08-22
Bat speed · 101 swings
73.0 mph
Lg median 71.1 mph
Slowest: S. Kwan (61.9 mph)Fastest: J. Caminero (78.7 mph)
Lg median

Swings faster than most hitters. His swing length is typical, but his attack angle is steeper than most. Changes his swing less than most hitters with two strikes. His bat travels on a steeper path than most.

Attack angle
14.2°
Lg median 9.4°
Swing length
7.5 ft
Lg median 7.3 ft
Swing path tilt
35.7°
Lg median 31.6°
Middle half of the league
How to read this chart
  • Competitive swings: bunts and checked-type swings under 50 mph are excluded, so these numbers sit a touch below the bat speeds Savant publishes, which use a different cut.
  • League tracking starts in 2024, and early 2024 has small gaps — about 93% of swings that season have a reading.
  • Swing length — how far the sweet spot of the bat travels during the swing.
  • Attack angle — the bat’s upward or downward tilt through the zone.
  • Swing path tilt — how steep the bat’s path is.
  • None of these is better or worse on its own — swing style trades power against contact (the fastest and slowest swings in the league both belong to stars).

How he sets up

Where he stands in the box and how his feet are set, next to the league-average setup.

How he sets up

A typical setup — close to league average in depth, off-plate distance, width, and angle.

Top-down batting stance vs league averagePitcher ↑
His feetLg avg
How to read this chart
  • Overhead view of the batter’s box. The dots are his feet, reconstructed from Statcast’s stance measurements — hip position, foot separation, and stance angle — about one second before the pitch. It’s an approximation of his setup, not his stride or swing.
  • Open means his front foot is pulled off the line to the plate; closed means it steps toward it. The average hitter sets up slightly open.
  • The change line above only appears for a sustained month-over-month move that clears normal Statcast noise by a wide margin.
  • The chart is his month-by-month average for whichever measure you pick, this season only. A month needs 25 tracked swings to appear, so an injured or platooned month can be missing. The shaded band and dashed line are where the middle half of hitters, and the median hitter, sat over their whole season.
  • On the angle chart, below zero is an open stance and above zero is a closed one — hover a point (or drag on a phone) and it says which in words.
  • Data through 2026-08-22.

Best games

His biggest games this year

Best games

His best games this season by bases above replacement.