Red Sox acquire outfielder Ramon Flores from Diamondbacks

The Red Sox announced their Opening Day roster on Monday, but that wasn’t all they accomplished, apparently. The team also added to their questionable high-minors outfield depth by pulling off a minor trade with the Diamondbacks that netted them 26-year-old outfielder Ramon Flores. The news comes via Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish. It’s unclear whether or not this related to the Deven Marrero move or if the teams made two separate minor deals.

Flores is a former Yankees minor leaguer who signed as an international free agent back in 2008. He made his way through New York’s farm system and made his major-league debut in 2015. Since then, he went to the Mariners, then the Brewers, then the Angels, then the Diamondbacks and is now in his sixth organization since the start of 2015. Although Flores has had some success at the plate in the minors, it has not carried over to the majors. He’s only gotten 331 plate appearances at the highest level — 289 of which came in 2016 — and he’s hit just .204/.281/.256 for a rough 43 wRC+. Last season, in 493 plate appearances with the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, he hit a solid .312/.409/.460 which was 12 percent better than the league-average per wRC+.

Flores is going to be assigned to Triple-A with Boston and start the year with Pawtucket. He now joins an outfield that already includes Rusney Castillo, Jeremy Barfield and Aneury Tavarez, and Flores could now be the most likely to be promoted first of that group if there is an injury. It’s also worth noting that today is Flores’ birthday, which is a good birthday because it’s also this very author’s birthday. Happy birthday, Ramon, and welcome to the Red Sox.