{"id":507629,"date":"2026-01-06T08:57:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/507629\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:57:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:57:23","slug":"2026-south-side-sox-top-prospect-no-68-stiven-flores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/507629\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 South Side Sox Top Prospect No. 68: Stiven Flores"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stiven Flores
Catcher
5\u00b411\u00b4\u00b4
180 pounds
Age: 20
2024 South Side Sox Top Prospect Ranking<\/a> 73
2025 South Side Sox Top Prospect Ranking<\/a> 64
2025 High Level Arizona Complex League (Rookie)
Age relative to high level -0.3 years
SSS rank among all catchers in the system 5
Overall 2025 stats 53 games \u26be\ufe0f 2 HR \u26be\ufe0f 33 RBI \u26be\ufe0f .289\/.340\/.394 \u26be\ufe0f 16 BB \u26be\ufe0f 18 K \u26be\ufe0f .991 FLD% \u26be\ufe0f 10-of-59 (16.9%) CS \u26be\ufe0f 0.6 WAR<\/p>\n

Flores was signed out of Venezuela by the White Sox<\/a> in July 2023 as a 17-year-old catcher. In 147 PAs, he did really well, slashing .391\/.456\/.477 while also throwing out 20 would-be basestealers in 49 opportunities in the Domincan Summer League. As a result, he was named to the DSL All-Star team.<\/p>\n

Flores\u2019 near-.400 batting average was propped up by a .402 BABIP, but the bat-to-ball skills were apparent. He struck out only seven times and walked more than twice as often in those 147 PAs. A 152 wRC+ with good run prevention numbers behind the plate in the DSL was a nice start for the uber-young backstop.<\/p>\n

Moving right on to the ACL at just 18 years old, Flores mostly stayed the course and solidified himself as a legitimate catching prospect. While his percentage of runners nabbed dropped from a crazy 41%, a 28.8% rate Stateside will play, although a jump to 14 passed balls merits concern.<\/p>\n

Of greater concern was Flores\u2019 drop in power. While his ability to put the ball over the fence remained steady (not good, at one homer per season), the extra-base power the backstop flexed in the DSL dissipated: One double, one triple and one homer may make for a crazy-looking back of the a baseball card, but it will not pass muster as a professional hitter. Odder still, for a catcher with enough speed\/quicks to be working a perfect stolen-base record (7-for-7 DSL, 6-for-6 ACL) it seems incredibly odd that not one of Flores\u2019 38 singles in 2024 could have been stretched into a speed double. Is the kid only hitting rockets right in front of outfielders, and legging out infield safeties?<\/p>\n

Although on the surface 2025 seemed another solid season for Stiven (upticks in all slash numbers and a dramatic reduction in strikeouts, for example), there is one significant underlying concern: While repeating the ACL (in 2025, age-appropriate for him), he seemed less than ever a future catcher, nabbing fewer than 17% of base-stealers. Of course, at any level stolen bases are not hung solely on the catcher, that mark continues a dismal trend for Flores. On the plus side, his defensive mechanics behind the plate have improved, as he more than halved his passed balls from 2024.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Flores seemed like an ascendant star behind the plate. He\u2019s now settled in as the new Ronny Hernandez. That\u2019s no insult, but Flores\u2019 first year of full-season ball at Kannapolis comes with more question marks than he\u2019s ever faced in the White Sox system.<\/p>\n

2026 Top 100 Prospects no longer in the system
15. Peyton Pallette, RHRP (lost to Cleveland in the Rule 5 draft)
43. Ronny Hernandez, C (traded to Boston on Nov. 18, 2025)
51. Drew Dalquist, RHRP (declared free agency)
66. Andre Lipcius, 1B (declared free agency)
84. Caleb Freeman, RHRP (declared free agency)
90. DJ Gladney, RF (declared free agency)
98. Luis Pineda, C (declared free agency)<\/p>\n

Estimated prospect ratings for players added this offseason but too late for our Top 100
23. Alexander Alberto, RHRP (Rule 5 pick from Tampa Bay)
40. Tristan Peters, OF (trade from Tampa Bay)
44. Tim Elko, 1B (re-signed as MiLB free agent)
45. Jackson Kelley, RHRP (MiLB Rule 5 pick from Texas)
87. Tanner Murray, INF (trade from Tampa Bay)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stiven FloresCatcher5\u00b411\u00b4\u00b4180 poundsAge: 202024 South Side Sox Top Prospect Ranking 732025 South Side Sox Top Prospect Ranking 642025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[59257,5,138,49,38554,59258,2561,4,67204,396,38555,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-507629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-2026-white-sox-top-100-prospects","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-white-sox","12":"tag-chicago-white-sox-prospects-minor-leagues","13":"tag-chicago-white-sox-top-100-prospects","14":"tag-chicagowhitesox","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-stiven-flores","17":"tag-white-sox","18":"tag-white-sox-minors","19":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115847330183191073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}