José Flores (baseball coach)


José David Flores is a Puerto Rican professional baseball and infield coach for the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. He has previous major league coaching experience with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Minor league playing career

The Houston Astros selected Flores in the 38th round of the 1990 Major League Baseball draft. Beginning with the 1990 season, he was assigned to the Class A Short Season Auburn Astros of the New York–Penn League. In all, Flores played five years in Minor League Baseball, all in the Astros' farm system, from 1990 to 1994.
In 1992 and 1993, Flores made 37 errors at shortstop, each year. In 1994, he spent his final season as an active player with the Class AA Jackson Generals of the Texas League, batting just.192.
In 1,340 minor league at bats, Flores hit.239/.310/.287, with five home runs, 36 stolen bases, and 115 runs batted in. A utility infielder, he played 314 games at shortstop, 63 games at second base, and 26 games at third base. In Flores’ final season, he appeared in two games as a relief pitcher.

Coaching and managing career

After retiring as a player, Flores served as a coach in the Puerto Rican Winter League and manager of the Puerto Rican national baseball team. For five seasons, he worked for the Chicago Cubs as their minor league infield coordinator. The Philadelphia Phillies hired Flores for their major league coaching staff after the 2017 season.
In December 2018, Flores was announced as the Baltimore Orioles third base coach and infield coach. In 2019, after a dugout shouting match about defensive positioning with relief pitcher Richard Bleier in which Bleier complained about the shift Flores had mandated, Bleier played in front of an infield that was not shifted for the final month of the season, and saw his results improve.