John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Mauricio Dubon admitted he may have been overanxious. He wants to prove he is a major leaguer a season after getting a taste of the life he has awaited.
The irony, of course, is the impatience is what has hurt him.
“I just pressed a little bit. Try to start good, show everybody I could play here,” Dubon said over Zoom before Saturday’s matchup with the A’s at Oracle Park.
What that has amounted to is 11-for-49 (.224) with just a double and home run. What that has amounted to is an on-base percentage that is just a tick higher (.235) because he’s walked just once in 52 plate appearances. What that has amounted to is, per Fangraphs, 41.9 percent of pitches outside the strike zone Dubon has swung at.
That chase percentage tops (bottoms?) the Giants and is 13th worst in the majors among hitters with at least 50 plate appearances.
If Dubon sees a way to turn his season around, it’s through seeing more pitches.
On a team with a few breakout late bloomers and several struggling older players, Dubon is a rarity: an athlete viewed as part of the Giants’ future. He has shown he can play center field and grew up as a middle infielder. There’s even been chatter about his playing third — but none of that would matter if his bat, and batting eye, does not match his glove.
For both the 26-year-old and his manager, they hope Friday’s 2-for-4 day jump-starts his campaign.
“Last night was an improvement. He had one at-bat where he took a pitch in that was a borderline call — turned out to be a strike, but it’s one of the pitches he’s been working on laying off,” Gabe Kapler said of Dubon, who showed an able bat in his brief spell last season but still not the plate discipline. “That’s a pitch that’s moving in to him. It looks like a strike and it turns out to be a ball.”
Dubon has begun showing bunt more often, a development Kapler has appreciated so defenses can’t cheat on him. The manager said breaking balls from right-handers that move away from him have been an issue, and Dubon, after 21 games of the season, said he “can do a better job.”
“I know when I swing at balls in the zone, I’m a very good hitter,” said Dubon, who spent seven years in the minors with the Red Sox and Brewers. “Right now I’m expanding a little bit. It’s just a matter of going back to who I was before.”
Who he was before was a second baseman and shortstop. Who he is now is a super utility player who spent a lot of his offseason, two camps and break in between honing his outfield defense.
Kapler has said the Giants asked a lot from Dubon, which prompted a few days rest earlier this month. Neither Kapler nor Dubon blamed his offense on the amount of defensive work he had had to put in.
As the Giants see less of Brandon Crawford, they ask more from Dubon, who, despite his struggles, has hammered lefties (7-for-18, though without a walk or extra-base hit).
“He’s pretty tough, he’s a pretty resilient kid,” Kapler said. “And I think he’s been capable of handling everything that has been thrown his way.”