Mauricio Dubon is Good, but Plays Too Much

This is not a Dubon hate post. He's a good player and I'm glad he's on the team.

With that said he plays entirely too much. The team has treated him as an everyday player this season and most fans seem to think that's warranted. He has a good batting average and great defensive versatility, but on this roster that shouldn't be enough to elevate him above the utility role.

This season he is slashing .280/.306/.389, an almost exact replica of his performance last year, as well as his first two years in the big leagues, so it's reasonable to assume this is his baseline as a player. His wRC+ is 96, meaning he's slightly below average as a hitter. He does a good job of getting the bat on the ball and avoiding strikeouts, but he simply does not walk or slug enough to be a plus value hitter, and he never has in his career.

Now a guy with a slightly below average bat and good defense anywhere on the field makes for a great utility player, and would justify everyday play on most teams. However, the kind of player Dubon is should never be consistently playing over either Chas McCormick or Joey Loperfido.

I know I know, Chas has not played well this year. However, Chas hasn't played much at all this year. He sports a lowly wRC+ of 62, but due to missing almost a month with injury and inconsistent playing time ever since, that is only over a sample of 174 plate appearances. In those terms it's a shorter slump than Bregman (who for reference now has 398 plate appearances) had to start the year, and is also comparable in length to Yainer Diaz's slump. Both of those players played everyday to get out of their slump, and are now some of the hottest hitters on the team. Chas has not received the same treatment, presumably because there are so many outfielders on the team battling for playing time, but that is a mistake.

Chas has a career wRC+ of 112 over 1358 plate appearances, compared to Dubon's career wRC+ of 87 over 1485 plate appearances. In Chas's breakout season last year he had a wRC+ of 133, Dubon's was 97. This gives Chas a career fWAR of 7.3 since his debut in 2021, while Dubon's is 4.0 since his debut in 2019. Chas is also a better outfielder than Dubon, Dubon's defense excels more in the infield. A slump over 174 plate appearances should not be enough to override the fact that Chas is just a better player, with better career numbers in on-base percentage, slugging, and outfield defense.

As for Loperfido, he is a highly touted prospect who lead the minor leagues in homers before getting called up, and has hit for a wRC+ of 118 in his limited time so far in the majors. His outfield defense has also looked better than Dubon's to me, though that is a much more limited sample. Dubon should not be playing over him until Loperfido proves otherwise.

Tucker's injury should have been a golden opportunity for both Chas and Loperfido to play everyday in the outfield. Instead, both have been benched far too often in favor of Dubon, and even Trey Cabbage in way too many instances. This could also have been a great opportunity to see whether Loperfido deserves to play at 1st base when Tucker returns and outfield play opportunity plummets, without taking away playing time from Singleton in the meantime. Instead this team has continued its baffling practice of overplaying certain bench players, and simply because Dubon has a good batting average everyone seems fine with that.