Bernardo Flores

Position: LHP
Born: 8/23/1995
Ht: 6’4″ Wt: 170 lb
Acquired: Drafted 7th round in the 2016 draft out of USC
Career Stats

FutureSox Prospect Rankings

  • #25 – 2017 Preseason
  • #23 – 2019 Preseason
  • #21 – 2019 Midseason
  • #20 – 2020 Preseason
  • #27 – 2020 Midseason
  • #25 – 2021 Preseason

FutureSox Media

Accolades

  • Carolina League All-Star, 2018 Midseason
  • MiLB Gold Glove, 2018

Scouting Report

In college, Flores pitched mostly out of the bullpen for the USC Trojans and only had eight starts between his sophomore and junior campaigns. Flores had a 6.70 ERA as a junior, but the White Sox liked him enough to sign him for $200,000 ($214,900 slot) in the seventh round.

After a quick tune-up stint in Arizona, the lefty threw 59 innings that resulted in a 3.66 ERA and a 3.8 K/BB ratio for Great Falls. In 2017, Flores was successful in 14 starts with Kannapolis (3.35 ERA, 1.5 BB/9, 8.1 K/9) before being promoted to Winston-Salem, where he was young for the league and his numbers all fell back a bit. In 2018 he made significant developmental strides and the numbers show it. After 12 starts with the Dash compiling a 2.55 ERA, he was promoted to Double-A Birmingham where he continued throwing strikes (1.6 BB/9) and putting up a 2.76 ERA.

An oblique injury limited Flores to 78.1 innings again in Birmingham the next year, with some rehab innings at lower levels as well. His numbers were similar except with a higher strikeout rate (7.9/9 vs. 5.4/9) and twice as many home runs allowed in the same inning total. He spent 2020 at the White Sox alternate site in Schaumburg and earned a brief call-up to the majors out of the bullpen.

Flores’ fastball sits in the low 90s. In his two MLB relief appearances in 2020, it averaged 91.6 mph. Flores uses his tall, lanky frame to get good angle on his pitches and it was a point of emphasis for the lefty in his side work with the White Sox. He has a four-pitch mix with a slider, curve and changeup. The changeup is the pitch that will typically get the highest grades from evaluators. While the speed variance between his fastball and changeup isn’t much, Flores gets big movement on the pitch that mirrors a screwball at its best. The progression of his curve will be important moving forward if Flores wants to stay as a starter moving through the organization. When he’s on top of it, it has a 12-6 rotation, but the pitch has typically shown a bit more lateral movement since he’s been on the scouting radar. In 2018 he added a low 80s slider to his repertoire as well. The fastball seems to be the biggest question mark.