Utilityman Mauricio Dubón has won an arbitration hearing against the Astros, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2 in Houston. The Astros will pay the $3.5MM salary figure submitted by Dubón and his representatives at ALIGND Sports, as opposed to the $3MM sum the team had filed.
Dubón is coming off the best season of his career. He played in a personal-high 132 games and tallied almost 500 plate appearances. Dubón turned in league average results offensively, hitting .278/.309/.411 while getting into the double digits in home runs for the first time. As he has throughout his career, he consistently put the ball in play while playing essneitlaly anywhere on the diamond. Dubón struck out in fewer than 15% of his plate appearances and started multiple games at each of first base, second base, shortstop, left field and center field.
The right-handed hitter filled in effectively at the keystone early in the year when Jose Altuve was on the injured list. He moved back to his traditional utility role as the season progressed. Dubón doesn’t project as a starter at any individual position in a strong Houston lineup, but his defensive flexibility means he’ll log semi-regular playing time around the diamond.
This was his second of four trips through the arbitration process. Dubón qualified for early arbitration last winter as a Super Two player, agreeing to a $1.4MM salary for 2023. He earns a raise of more than $2MM this time and will go through the process twice more. Dubón won’t be eligible for free agency until the 2026-27 offseason, at which point he’ll be entering his age-32 campaign.
Dubón was Houston’s only arbitration-eligible player who didn’t agree to terms this offseason. Finalizing his salary pushes their 2024 payroll commitments to roughly $240MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. They’re up to nearly $255MM in competitive balance tax obligations, just $2MM below the second penalization tier. It’s easily the highest payroll projection in franchise history as Houston pushes for another AL West triumph. With each of Dubón, Taylor Ward and Austin Hays being announced as the winners of their hearings this morning, players have been victorious in three of the first five arbitration cases.
Congratulations, Mauricio, on a well-deserved victory!
Mauricio made a reasonable offer and won his case. More power to him, because he earned his keep last year.
Nice maricio. Now you can throw your current team under the bus like you did your last team. #scandalous!
“Throw your current team”…Not to take sides, but it is strange that Dubon could rarely get on the field with the .500ish Giants, but played a key role on the playoff contending Astros.
Are you moricios lover ?
That’s the question I’ve been asking. Giants seemed afraid to overexpose him. With HOU that was not an issue. Had he not gotten out of SF he would not have won today.
Nah he just didn’t kiss the Kapler ring. But that clown’s Miami’s problem now
I wonder what he plans to do with the extra $500k.
Give ten percent to his agent and another 20 percent to the feds?
20%?
That’s a huge pile of deductions to avoid 37% going to Uncle Sam.
No “defeat?”
All three players got their due today. Dubon did more than anyone could have hoped for during Altuve’s absence.
Glad for Dubon, he deserved it
He is easily worth 3.5 mil. The article failed to mention he also won the utility player Gold Glove.
Good!
Power to labor!
What would Dubon bring back in a trade?
A lot more than the Astros gave up. However, I don’t see the Astros trading him. He’s too valuable.
Mauricio is a great player to have at the bottom of a roster, but bad if he’s expected to start.
Those players typically must stay under $5M salary to “fit” on a roster.
He may have won today but it may cost him when it comes to a roster spot next year, or 2026 when arbitration pushes him way beyond utility player salary.
I see him non-tendered before hitting traditiinal FA.
The Astros love super utility guys like Dubon. Marwin Gonzales and Aledmis Diaz previously held the job. I doubt the Astros extend him, but I would expect him to be on the roster for the next three years.
The difference is:
Marwin played over 100 games at each of 5 different positions and he had 736 OPS 103 OPS+) and made $2M in his 2nd year of arb w/ only 1 year left.
Aledmys also played 5 different positions regularly and had a 737 OPS (101 OPS+) while making only $2.6M w/ 2 years remaining.
Dubon has hit .669 OPS (86 OPS+) while only playing 3 positions regularly.
The lesser defensive versatility and offensive ability coupled with his higher salary will make him expendable.
No sane team is going non-tender a player providing 2.7 WAR for $3.5 million.
I agree with that.
1) He does not project to nearly the playing time, nor WAR. Altuve’s broken thumb and Dusty’s stupid lineup decisions are both in the past. His 2024 projections are for less than 1 WAR.
2) Specifically because of this decision I was referring to him being expendable next year or the following when he is even more expensive because he will never see 2 WAR again