Astros infielder/outfielder Mauricio Dubon is slated to undergo surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb this week, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Dubon played the final month of the season with the torn the ligament, Rome reports. The recovery period will be around six to eight weeks, leaving ample time for the versatile utilityman to be healed up by spring training.
Houston acquired the 30-year-old Dubon in a May 2022 trade that sent journeyman catcher Michael Papierski back to the Giants. He’s since emerged as a key role player for the ’Stros, hitting .274/.303/.388 in 920 plate appearances over the past two seasons while playing everywhere on the diamond other than on the mound or behind the plate. Rome notes that Dubon suffered the injury on a slide in early September but went on to hit .291/.322/.346 down the stretch while playing through considerable pain. Though he lacks power, Dubon is an exceptionally tough strikeout (12.9% this past season) and excels on the defensive side of the game, evidenced by a Gold Glove in 2023.
Dubon is arbitration-eligible this offseason and projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a reasonable $4.6MM salary. That’ll stand as a raise over this year’s $3.5MM salary, which he earned after winning an arb hearing over the Astros back in February.
While injuries can at times be a catalyst for an arb-eligible player to be non-tendered, that’s highly unlikely in this instance. The Astros can control Dubon through the 2026 season, and there’s no reason to think the surgery will impact his readiness for the 2025 campaign. He should return to the same utility role that saw him log 93 innings at first base, 138 at second base, 75 at third base, 32 at shortstop, 405 in left field, 153 in center field and 88 in right field this past season. As a career .281/.324/.442 hitter against southpaws, he should also be a regular piece of Houston’s attack versus lefties (even if he had a down showing in that regard this past season).
Another casualty of the Kapler era.
Farhan made that deal because Dubon didn’t fit the profile. Instead we got Tommy La Stella.
And the trade was a disaster from the start because Michael Papierski was never going to have any value. While Mauricio didn’t set the world on fire with the Giants, it was clear the kid had lots of tools. To just give him away showed a complete lack of baseball smarts.
Agreed. Not to mention he fit right in with dusty and the World Series champs
When he was with the Giants, he made too many mental mistakes, on the bases and in the field.
However, physical skills (talent) is either present or not, but as players get more reps their mental mistakes should lessen.
Part of having young talent. These mistakes can be reduced with a good manager. Not kapler
Remember the Crew calling him up and quickly flipping him to the giants in exchange for Ray Black who was throwing 100+mph, I think he had injuries but have to see what happened/turned out with his career as of now
Ray black would reach 105. The giants slow played him a ton. He had Tommy John before getting drafted. I wanna say he had another shoulder injury pretty soon after getting drafted
Big blow to the Astros playoffs. Unfortunate.
Knowing the Astros, they will cheat and replace his thumb with an entire bionic arm.
@steven got ya there dicky p. Flags fly forever…
I’m not an Astros fan, but can we get off that narrative after all these years? Let’s move on.
They cheated, it’s not conducive to the conversation. Get over it
2 rings
Didn’t even bother to run to first when committing the final out of the Astros’ season. Bad attitude
No.
I guess you’d have to watch the guy play regularly. He’s always got a great attitude and hustles anytime I’ve seen him play. A far cry from John Singleton
Fair, but I saw that play and it reminded me of the years I had to watch him with the Giants
Farhan letting Dubon go was a huge mistake. He is the prototypical swiss army knife who can play any position with Gold Glove caliber defense and he has an average bat and above average speed. He’ll play a long time as long as he has that skillset.
Dubon hit .269/.296/.361 this year. He had one of the lowest OBP’s in baseball and hit four home runs. Not even close to an average bat.
Technically he was above average offensively this year (0.4 OWAR) and over 2 games above average last year (2.2 OWAR), that’s not including his defensive value.
If you don’t like his game, that’s fine. I do though.
Love his game, but does Fitzgerald break out if the giants still have dubon?
zero WAR is is not average. 0 WAR is replacement level, hence the name
He’s Marwin Gonzalez pre trashcans
If Dusty was still alive and managing this team they would be playing in today’s game. Espada will never cut it.
If Crusty the Clown was still managing this team – god forbid – they would have lost another 15 games due to his poor decisions and insistence on playing Maldonado behind the plate.
I am not convinced with Espada though and he seems to be making some of the same errors .
Did you do something to dusty? Because he’s alive and well
I’m surprised the author thinks its a lock they’ll tender him a contract. He was one of the worst hitters in baseball this year (.296 OBP, bottom 10 in MLB in walk rate, 4 HR)
Because there’s more to baseball than OBP?
Dubon is a useful player.
Good utility player but he stood out at 2B when filling in for Altuve.
So Mauricio gave the thumbs up on his surgery. I will see myself out now.
He wasn’t great with the Giants, but it was hard not to like him. Should have kept him.
He was yo-yo-ed just like every other prospect under fahran.
Yes, he apologized for that.
I hope the thumb mends well. He’s a quality throwback slap hitter and utility guy.