The Sioux City Explorers have announced that the team has signed RHP Santiago Florez for the 2024 season.
The addition of the former Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand gives the Explorers 15 players under contract for the upcoming season.
Santiago Florez comes to Sioux City after spending six seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.
Florez spent the 2023 season with high-A Greensboro in the South Atlantic League. He appeared in 37 games out of the pen, finishing fourth in appearances for the club.
Florez pitched in 40.2 innings with 40 strikeouts and a 7.08 ERA with a 5-2 record all in relief for Greensboro.
Florez has pitched in 124 games as a professional, making 57 starts in 338.1 innings.
This winter he appeared in two games for Caribes in Venezuela and internationally for his native Colombia.
Florez was a member of Team Colombia in the 2023 World Baseball Classic where he pitched one inning of relief against the United States in a 3-2 defeat for Colombia.
He also played for the team that captured the gold medal in the 2023 Pan American Games last October.
Florez, 23, hails from Barranquilla, Colombia and was an international free agent for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2016.
2024 Players signed:
RHP Santiago Flores
INF/OF Nick Shumpert
INF Delvin Zinn
LHP Jared Wetherbee
RHP Pedro Gonzalez
INF/OF Brennen Dorighi
RHP Heitor Tokar
RHP Braunny Munoz
RHP Kyle Bloor
C Jake Ortega
C Wilfredo Gimenez
OF Scott Ota
INF Daniel Lingua,
INF Daniel Pérez
RHP John Sheaks
