{"id":302382,"date":"2025-11-20T03:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/302382\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T03:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T03:11:08","slug":"braves-acquire-mauricio-dubon-for-nick-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/302382\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves Acquire Mauricio Dub\u00f3n For Nick Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros and Braves announced a one-for-one swap of middle infielders. Utility player Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a> is headed to Atlanta with defensive specialist Nick Allen<\/a> on his way to Houston.<\/p>\n

Atlanta takes on a few million dollars to upgrade their infield. Dub\u00f3n, 31, spent nearly four seasons in Houston. The Astros acquired him from the Giants in a minor trade early in 2022. It was a nice pickup, as he developed into a versatile and generally reliable piece off the bench. Dub\u00f3n won two utility Gold Glove awards while playing all three infield positions to the left of first base and a decent amount of center and left field.<\/p>\n

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The righty-swinging Dub\u00f3n was a league average hitter a couple seasons ago, batting .278\/.309\/.411 with 10 homers in nearly 500 trips to the dish. His offense has declined in each of the past two years. He\u2019s coming off a .241\/.289\/.355 showing with seven longballs through 398 plate appearances and carries a .256\/.293\/.358 line over the past two seasons. He\u2019s very difficult to strike out but rarely walks and has well below-average power.<\/p>\n

Still, that light bat is a significant upgrade over what Allen brings to the table offensively. The 27-year-old Allen didn\u2019t hit a single home run in 416 trips to the dish this year. He turned in a .211\/.284\/.251 line that made him easily the worst hitter to take 400+ plate appearances. Allen ranked in the bottom 20 hitters in on-base percentage, while his slugging mark was more than .040 points lower than the second-lowest in MLB (.296 by Victor Scott II<\/a>). He owns a .213\/.265\/.272 slash in nearly 1200 plate appearances over parts of four seasons.<\/p>\n

Allen has continued to get playing time because of his superlative glove. He has been touted as an excellent infielder dating back to his high school days. Allen has posted fantastic defensive marks in every season of his career. Defensive Runs Saved graded him as the third-best shortstop in MLB this year behind Mookie Betts<\/a> and\u00a0Zach Neto<\/a>. Statcast\u2019s Outs Above Average also had him third, albeit behind\u00a0Bobby Witt Jr.<\/a> and\u00a0Masyn Winn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dub\u00f3n is unlikely to be that caliber of defender if he were pressed into everyday shortstop work. Statcast has graded him as a plus defender in his 721 career innings at the position though. Defensive Runs Saved has him right around league average. Dub\u00f3n should be capable of playing there every day, and he\u2019s not a complete zero offensively. That\u2019s particularly true in favorable platoon matchups, as he\u2019s a .288\/.329\/.417 hitter versus left-handed pitching over the past three years.<\/p>\n

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The Braves couldn\u2019t afford to enter next season with Allen atop the shortstop depth chart. Dub\u00f3n would be a low-end regular but provides a higher floor. This shouldn\u2019t detract from Atlanta\u2019s interest in re-signing\u00a0Ha-Seong Kim<\/a>. Dub\u00f3n has the versatility to provide cover behind\u00a0Ozzie Albies<\/a> and\u00a0Austin Riley<\/a> at second and third base while complementing lefty-hitting\u00a0Michael Harris II<\/a> in center field. Still, he\u2019s at least a reasonable one-year fallback if Kim signs elsewhere in a market devoid of shortstop alternatives in free agency or trade.<\/p>\n

Dub\u00f3n is entering his final season of arbitration eligibility. He\u2019s projected<\/a> by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $5.8MM salary. Allen is eligible for arbitration for the first time as a Super Two player and under control for four years. He\u2019s projected at $1.5MM. Houston cuts a little more than $4MM from the books while downgrading in the utility role.<\/p>\n

Allen isn\u2019t going to play shortstop barring an injury to Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a>, but he can offer a glove-only option at second base.\u00a0Jose Altuve<\/a> is the primary starter there for now, but the Astros hope to continue splitting his playing time between the keystone, left field, and designated hitter. They\u2019ve been tied to\u00a0Brendan Donovan<\/a> in trade conversations and could consider other possibilities (e.g. a Brandon Lowe<\/a> trade,\u00a0Jorge Polanco<\/a> in free agency) if the Cardinals deal Donovan elsewhere. They\u2019ll ideally add a left-handed bat to balance a righty-heavy lineup. Allen is out of minor league options, so he\u2019ll need to be on the active roster or designated for assignment.<\/p>\n

Brian McTaggart of MLB.com<\/a> reported that Dub\u00f3n had been traded to the Braves just before the announcements. Respective images courtesy of Jerome Miron and Brett Davis, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros and Braves announced a one-for-one swap of middle infielders. Utility player Mauricio Dub\u00f3n is headed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[133475,136767,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-302382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-mauricio-dubon","9":"tag-nick-allen","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}