San Francisco Giants Veteran Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery

The San Francisco Giants receive another injury blow, losing a veteran player for the rest of the year.

Jun 16, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants first base Wilmer Flores (41) hits a double during the fourth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Oracle Park. / Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants have dealt with some big injuries all year, losing Jung Hoo Lee for the season as well as LaMonte Wade Jr, Thairo Estrada and Michael Conforto for some time.

Jorge Soler was dealt at the deadline, so the Giants lost their everyday designated hitter.

Now, Wilmer Flores will miss the rest of the year, losing another DH option and one of the teams' veterans.

Flores hit the 10-day IL on July 25 with a knee injury, and on Tuesday, manager Bob Melvin announced that he would miss the season because after he underwent a Tenex procedure.

It's been a rough go of it for the 33-year-old in 2024. His most recent IL stint isn't his first of the year, as he missed time and the end of June and beginning of July with the same knee injury that he ultimately couldn't recover from.

On the field, he has struggled as well.

Primarily playing first base in the absence of Wade, Flores is having the worst season of his career at the plate. In 71 games, the veteran has a slashline of .206/.277/.318 with four home runs, 26 RBI and a .595 OPS. His 72 OPS+ is the lowest he's had since 2015.

With his season over, Flores finishes 2024 with -0.4 bWAR.

Coming off a career year in which he led San Francisco with 23 home runs and posted career highs in OPS and OPS+, he was expected to be a big part of the Giants lineup yet again. With the signing of Jorge Soler, he wouldn't have been the DH, but was set to split time at first base and be a platoon option to face left-handed pitchers.

Once Wade returned and Soler was dealt, it seemed likely that he would get a majority of the time at the designated hitter spot to keep his bat in the lineup. However, the Giants wanted to get Marco Luciano more at-bats, so he would have been there to spell Luciano on his days off if he was able to return healthy.

Ultimately, with the injuries and poor performance, Flores fell lower on the depth chart. That is especially true with the acquisition of Mark Canha, who is now going to fill the role that Flores had for the past few seasons.

It's entirely possible Flores has played his last game with San Francisco.

He will be a free agent at the end of the year, and it seems the team wants to give the younger players more reps.

He could be brought back as bench depth, but for now, his 2024 season is done.