Undrafted, Undeterred: The Rise of Rafael Flores Jr.

Undrafted, Undeterred: The Rise of Rafael Flores Jr.

In July 2022, 20 rounds of the MLB Draft came and went, and Rafael Flores Jr. never heard his name called.

Fast forward four years, and the Anaheim native is in the big leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates, hitting a 440-foot first career home run, making franchise history with a two-homer pinch-hit game, and putting himself right in the middle of Pittsburgh's conversation about what comes next behind the plate.

It’s a pretty incredible path for a player who wasn’t drafted at all.

Flores’ journey has taken him from Katella High School to a junior college in Whittier, summer baseball in Alaska, the Yankees' minor league system, and eventually Pittsburgh as part of one of the biggest trade deadline deals of 2025.

And now, he's making sure people remember his name.

The Kid Who Wasn't on Everyone's Radar

Flores was born in Anaheim on November 7, 2000, and played his high school baseball at Katella High School. After high school, he headed to Rio Hondo College in Whittier. It was there that he started to really make a name for himself.

At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, Flores developed into a serious power threat. In 39 games for the Roadrunners in 2022, he hit .380 with nine home runs and 36 RBIs.

Then he headed north to play summer ball with the Alaska Goldpanners of the Alaska Baseball League.

He hit .348 with 36 RBIs in 28 games.
Still, when the MLB Draft rolled around, Flores went undrafted.
The Yankees didn't wait long.
On July 25, 2022, they signed him as a non-drafted free agent.
And apparently, Flores took the whole "undrafted" thing personally.
That chip on his shoulder has followed him ever since.

Making His Way Through the Yankees System

Flores started his professional career with a short stint in the Florida Complex League, going 6-for-14 with two home runs in four games. Then came his first full season in 2023 with the Hudson Valley Renegades. He played 105 games and hit .259 with 15 doubles, eight home runs and 41 RBIs. He also spent time at both catcher and first base. The power really started showing up late in the season. After hitting just four home runs in his first 88 games, Flores hit five over his final 17 games and the playoffs.

Then came 2024.This was the year things really started to click. Flores split the season between Hudson Valley and Double-A Somerset and finished with a .279/.379/.495 line, 31 doubles, 21 home runs, 68 RBIs and 66 walks in 122 games. The Yankees noticed. So did everyone else.

He was named the Yankees Kevin Lawn Award winner as their Minor League Position Player of the Year. Baseball America also named him the Yankees' Minor League Player of the Year and ranked him No. 10 in the organization's farm system.

Then he got an invitation to the Arizona Fall League. A player who hadn't been drafted two years earlier was suddenly one of the Yankees' most interesting prospects.

Then Came the Trade

Flores started 2025 back in Somerset and picked up right where he left off. By late May, he was hitting .306 and leading the Eastern League with 10 home runs. By late July, he led all Yankees minor leaguers in hits and total bases and earned a promotion to Triple-A.

And then everything changed. On July 31, 2025, the Yankees traded Flores, Edgleen Perez and Brian Sanchez to the Pittsburgh Pirates for All-Star closer David Bednar.

Flores was considered the centerpiece of the deal. He didn't exactly take long to make his new organization notice him. In 36 games with Triple-A Indianapolis, he hit .281 with six home runs and 28 RBIs. On September 16, the Pirates added him to their 40-man roster.

The next day, he was at PNC Park starting at first base against the Cubs, Flores stepped to the plate and ripped a changeup off the left-center field wall.

His first major league hit.
108.6 mph off the bat.
His family was there to see it.
A week later, he made his first MLB start behind the plate.

The 2025 season ended with Flores appearing in seven games, going 3-for-15 with two walks. But he was officially a big leaguer.

2026: The Moments Started Getting Bigger

The beginning of 2026 wasn't exactly what Flores had hoped for. He was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis out of spring training and hit just .207 over his first 53 games. He had a brief call-up in June, and then a concussion in late July put him on the sidelines again. But once he started getting consistent at-bats in August, something changed. Suddenly, Flores was becoming the guy Pittsburgh wanted at the plate when the game was on the line and he started collecting some pretty memorable moments.

June 11

Flores hit his first MLB home run.
It wasn't a cheap one.
He sent a ball 440 feet to dead center against the Dodgers' Justin Wrobleski.

August 13–14

He homered in three consecutive at-bats across games against Miami and Boston.
He also recorded his first three-hit game.
It was the first time a Pirates player had accomplished the three-consecutive-at-bats home run feat since Jack Suwinski in 2023.

August 19

This one might be my favorite.
Flores entered the game as a pinch-hitter and homered in the seventh.
Then, in the ninth, he came up again and tied the game with another home run, this one traveling 431 feet off Kenley Jansen.
Brandon Lowe eventually hit the walk-off home run.
But Flores had already made history.
He became the first Pirate since at least 1900 to hit multiple home runs in a game he didn't start.
Not bad for a guy who wasn't drafted.

September 20

Then came another big one. With Pittsburgh trailing Kansas City, Flores hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth inning. 426 feet. The Pirates won 4-3 and completed the sweep. And just like that, Flores had his 10th home run of the season.

The Catcher Pittsburgh Didn't Know it Needed

The power is what gets the attention, but Flores is also working to establish himself behind the plate.He's continued to develop as a catcher, including his work with the pitching staff and his throwing. On August 13, he caught Braxton Ashcraft's 85-pitch, 10-strikeout complete game in a 13-1 win over Miami. The more opportunities he's gotten, the more comfortable he's looked. Through September 20, Flores was hitting .385/.429/.615 for the month. Since August 1, among catchers with at least 120 plate appearances, he ranked first in slugging and second in OPS. That's a pretty big statement for a player who spent much of the season bouncing between Triple-A and the majors.

So what's next?

That's the fun part. Flores has taken what started as a pretty limited opportunity and turned it into a legitimate conversation about Pittsburgh's catching situation for 2027. There are still questions, of course. Catching over a full major league season is a different challenge than putting together a strong stretch of games.

But you can't ignore what he's done with the opportunities he's been given.
In 2022, Flores wasn't drafted.
In 2024, he was named the Yankees' Minor League Position Player of the Year.
In 2025, he was the centerpiece of a trade for an All-Star closer.
And in 2026, he's become one of those players who seems to find the biggest moments when his team needs them.
That's a pretty good reminder that the draft doesn't always tell you who is going to make it.
Sometimes, you just have to keep going.
And Rafael Flores Jr. definitely did.

Sources

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