C · 2026

Rafael Flores Jr.

Pittsburgh Pirates National League CentralC

Age: 26
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 232 lb
Number: #43

Born: November 7, 2000 in Anaheim, CA, USA
MLB debut: September 17, 2025
College: Rio Hondo JC

dbWAR: .2
PA: 31
AVG: .200
OBP: .355
SLG: .360
wRC+: 106

Rafael Flores Jr. is a catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2026 he hit 1 home run and knocked in 2 RBIs, notching 5 hits across 31 plate appearances in 10 games. His batting average was .200, 17.9% lower than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .355 clip and slugged .360, for an OPS of .715, 0.6% lower than the league mark of .719. He averaged 89.6 mph off the bat, hit 38.9% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 11.1% of them and made contact on 68.1% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 106 wRC+ puts his offence 6% above average. That comes to 0.2 dbWAR — +0.3 runs with the bat, -0.1 on the bases, +0.3 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+106

wOBA.332

ISO.160

BB%19.4%

WAR.2

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +1.7 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.

BattingBaserunningPositionReplacement

WAR by season

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHP	17	13	3	1	4	4	.231	.412	.462	.394	23.5%
vs RHP	14	12	2	0	2	3	.167	.286	.250	.257	21.4%

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	3	3	1	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.297	0.0%
vs RHB	2	2	1	0	0	0	.500	.500	.500	.446	0.0%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 18 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 18 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate: 11.1%
Exit velocity: 89.6
Max exit velo: 108.7
Hard hit: 38.9%
Sweet spot: 38.9%
Launch angle: 19.0°

Barrel rate11.1%

Exit velocity89.6 mph

Hard hit rate38.9%

Contact rate68.1%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Rafael Flores Jr. hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by

By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
Situation	PA	AB	H	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA
All situations	31	—	—	—	—	—	—	.200	.355	.360	.332
Bases empty · thin	17	14	2	1	1	3	5	.143	.294	.357	.299
Runner on first · thin	9	7	2	0	0	2	1	.286	.444	.286	.359
Runners on · thin	14	11	3	0	1	3	2	.273	.429	.364	.372
RISP · thin	5	4	1	0	1	1	1	.250	.400	.500	.397

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Pitch sequencing

What Rafael Flores Jr. throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

Slider

Select a count to see exactly what Rafael Flores Jr. throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, and how often it misses in 2026.

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

																				Trend
2026	10	31	5	1	2	0	6	7	.200	.355	.360	.160	.235	19.4%	22.6%	.332	+0.3	106	0.2
2025	6	17	3	0	0	0	2	7	.200	.294	.333	.133	.375	11.8%	41.2%	.285	-0.4	79	-0.0

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																			Trend
2026	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.00	3.09	2.00	0.0	0.0	0	74	0.0	—

Head to head

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Rafael Flores Jr.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.