The Ones That Slipped Away: Dylan Floro

Sometimes you regret not signing a player. Sometimes a player regrets not signing with you.

Dylan Floro came out of Buhach Colony High School in 2009 as an impressive talent. Then 6’1″, 175, Floro featured nice low-90’s velocity and two impressive breaking balls, a sharp slider and a curveball with big break. He only slipped because of a strong commitment to Cal State Fullerton. The Rays gave Floro a 20th round flier and hoped they could find a reasonable amount of money to change his mind. They could not. Floro instead went to Cal State Fullerton. And the results have been disastrious.

Floro is a little bit bigger at 6’2″, 180 now but his stuff is much less impressive. His fastball is down to the 88-91 MPH range. His slider has lost its bite. And he has tried to throw a changeup, but it has never materialized. Floro survives thanks to an extremely deceptive delivery and outstanding command, and he actually went 10-3 with a 2.52 ERA in 2012 with a 0.9 BB/9. However, his K/9 was just 5.7. Floro’s stuff just doesn’t impress anymore. Floro will be selected at some point in the 2012 MLB Draft and it could very well be the Rays, but that won’t be for a while, maybe the 8th to 10th round.

Floro could still put it all together again. But his career has gone from promising to questionable. Maybe the same things happens if he signs with the Rays. But maybe everything could have changed. There’s nothing to do at this point. What happened is what happened and thinking about anything else is just speculation. It’s up to Floro to get back to what he was after beginning his pro career. Can he overcome the circumstance that appears to have cost him to become the good major league pitcher he looked like he had the potential to be?