Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
Mauricio Dubon acknowledged the frustration was building, and for a second straight season he was off to a snail-slow start at the plate. There was solid contact, but there were few hits: just four in his first 36 at-bats, good for a .111 batting average after 18 games.
He continued with the same approach, but maybe his defensive game mirrored his offensive mindset.
“I just go out there and take hits away. I wasn’t getting hits, so I took it kind of personal,” Dubon said with a smile this weekend.
According to at least one metric, there have only been five fielders in baseball better at taking hits away this year. Statcast’s Outs Above Average, which is what it sounds like — a way of evaluating how many outs a player has saved — ranks Dubon as the sixth best in baseball with six. What is unique about the utility player, though, is he is the only leader in the stat who is racking up the outs at such a wide position set.
He has registered three Outs Above Average at second base, which is startling for a player with only 69 1/3 innings played at the spot. But anyone who watched Dubon in Pittsburgh — when he ranged into medium center and made a terrific, backhanded, over-the-shoulder catch; when he chased one runner back to first before spinning and firing to third for an out — can understand.
Dubon looked like a center fielder playing second, which is what he was. He has recorded one Out Above Average in 87 1/3 innings in center, a spot that was new to him last year, when he made it his new home. And another two OOA at shortstop, where he has filled in seamlessly for Brandon Crawford and emerged as valuable platoon option if and when the Giants are at full health.
And just for good measure, Dubon is at third base for Sunday’s finale against the Dodgers at Oracle Park, filling in for Evan Longoria because the Giants want to give the veteran, who’s been overworked, a few days rest. What Dubon has become is a super utility player who is doing everything well.
During the first in-person, distanced interview of the season, Dubon yanked his head toward the Dodgers’ dugout and said he has learned from Mookie Betts, who came up through Boston’s system as a second baseman before he became a star right fielder. Jackie Bradley Jr., too, who’s now with Milwaukee but has a Gold Glove from his Fenway Park days.
“Just catch it,” was their advice, said Dubon, who was drafted by the Red Sox. “Just catch it. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you run 100 yards, it doesn’t matter if you don’t catch it.”
Simple enough. More challenging is figuring out how to cram enough time into a pregame routine to be ready for second base, shortstop or center field on days he comes off the bench. It’s an issue not a lot of big league players deal with.
He now takes batting practice earlier in the day, and then takes some infield work. While others take batting practice ahead of games, he heads to the outfield with coaches Antoan Richardson or Alyssa Nakken and takes some reps out there. Before Sunday’s game, he was squeezing in some time at third. In Honduras, to make things interesting, coaches used to make Dubon and his pals move around and flip between positions. As his boyish face suggests, he hasn’t quite grown up.
The flexibility he offers is invaluable and exactly what the Giants saw in Dubon, who came over in the Drew Pomeranz trade in 2019. He can be a late-game sub in center when more sluggers than gloves are in the starting lineup; he can be a savior at second when injuries strike Donovan Solano, Tommy La Stella and Wilmer Flores; he can a solid Crawford complement, which the Giants would be sorely lacking otherwise; and he can be thrown at third, which he’s never played, and inspire confidence in Gabe Kapler that he can manage it.
He doesn’t consider himself a center fielder or shortstop or second baseman or third baseman. “I’m an athlete out there,” Dubon said.
And while he’s in the infield, the glove he uses, quite literally, is Crawford’s. He got it from his boyhood idol a while back and has cited the movie “Like Mike” — in which Lil’ Bow Wow can play like Michael Jordan because he wears Jordan’s shoes.
“Every time I make a good play I look at [Crawford] and am like, ‘That’s the glove,’” Dubon said.
The glove is tremendously impressive, and the bat has made it simple to shoehorn into lineups. After his rough start, the 26-year-old is 16-for-52 (.308) in May with an .807 OPS.
Has there been a switch he’s flipped to turn around his luck at the plate? Not quite, though some words from Kapler helped.
“He told me, ‘Play like you’re in the backyard,’” Dubon said. “‘Just have fun.’”
It’s easier when the ball is finding holes. And the more Dubon plays, the harder the holes are to find in his game.
“He’s playing with his instincts, which is a really good thing — allowing those to take over, not thinking his way through plays,” Kapler said. “So, all around, he’s been a high-quality defender.”
Everywhere.