Mauricio Dubón

BIOGRAPHY

Mauricio Dubon was born on July 19, 1994, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. He is a shortstop in the MLB.

Dubón was born and grew up in Honduras, where he attended a bilingual school. After a Christian baseball mission group visited Honduras when he was 15, Dubón had to work harder to get attention on the field. The Capital Christian High School saw Dubón play, and asked him if he wanted to come back to the United States with the group so he could hone his baseball skills while attending high school. Dubón moved to Sacramento, California, to attend Capital Christian as a foreign exchange student. He posted a .509 batting average (86-for-169) after his junior and senior year at Capital Christian High School, including 23 doubles, 14 triples, eight home runs and 81 RBI before being drafted by Boston. He was ranked by Baseball America as the best defensive player among the 2013 Red Sox draft picks.

The Red Sox selected Dubón in the 26th round of the 2013 MLB Draft. After batting .245 in 20 games for the GCL Red Sox shortly after signing, Dubón was promoted to the Lowell Spinners in 2014 and ranked among the best ten in the New York–Penn League with a .320 batting average (82-for-256).

For the Greenville Drive in 2015, Dubón hit .364 through his first 11 games and had hit safely in 10 of those contests. He finished the season with High-A Salem Red Sox of the Carolina League, hitting a combined .288/.349/.376 slash line with 30 stolen bases in 120 games during the two stints. He then was invited by the Boston Red Sox to participate on its 2016 spring training.

Dubón continued his development at Salem in 2016, earning a spot in the Carolina League All-Star team to play in the 2016 California-Carolina League All-Star Game. He was promoted to Double-A Portland Sea Dogs following his appearance in the All-Star Game. At the time of his promotion, Dubón had a .306/.387/.379 line over 238 at-bats with a good approach producing more walks (33) than strikeouts (25). The .306 average was good for third in the Carolina League, and the on-base percentage ranked sixth. Besides, his speed has also continued to be a huge part of his game, stealing 24 bases in 28 attempts, for the sixth best in the league.

At Double-A, Dubón improved his slash line to .339/.371/.538 over 62 games with Portland, including 23 multi-hits games, six home runs and 40 RBI. Overall, he hit .323/.379/.461 with 101 runs, 69 RBI and 30 stolen bases in the two stints. Besides, he led the Red Sox minors system in runs and hits (157), while his .323 average was the second-best to Aneury Tavárez (.330). In addition, he finished third in stolen bases behind Yoan Moncada (45) and Danny Mars (31) and sixth in RBI. He then was selected to join the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League during the postseason.

On December 6, 2016, the Red Sox traded Dubón, Travis Shaw, and Josh Pennington to the Milwaukee Brewers for Tyler Thornburg. He spent 2017 with both the Biloxi Shuckers and the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, posting a combined .274 batting average with eight home runs, 57 RBIs and 38 stolen bases in 129 total games between both teams. The Brewers added him to their 40-man roster after the season.

MLB.com ranked Dubón as Milwaukee's 11th ranked prospect going into the 2018 season. He spent the 2018 season with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, batting .343 with four home runs, 18 RBIs, and six stolen bases in only 27 games due to injury. He began 2019 with the San Antonio Missions.

On May 14, 2022, Dubón was traded to the Houston Astros in exchange for catcher Michael Papierski. Dubón is the second Honduran to play for the Astros; outfielder Gerald Young was the first.

Dubón started at shortstop on June 19, 2022, and hit his first home run in an Astros uniform, in the seventh inning versus Chicago White Sox starter Michael Kopech as the Astros won, 4–3. On August 21, Dubón batted leadoff and started at second base versus the Atlanta Braves, collecting two hits, a stolen base, and scoring two runs to catalyze a 5–4 Houston win. Dubón started in center field on August 28 versus the Baltimore Orioles, collecting one single and two outfield assists, rifling out both Robinson Chirinos and Jorge Mateo at third base.