Astros, Young Star Heading For Salary Arbitration

The Houston Astros were unable to come to an agreement with one player before Thursday's deadline.

One Houston Astros player failed to reach an agreement with the team on Thursday and is headed to an arbitration hearing with the franchise later this offseason.

That player is super-utility player Mauricio Dubón, who is in his first year of salary arbitration. The lack of a deal was first reported by The Athletic.

The Astros were able to reach agreements with the other six arbitration-eligible players, shelling out more than $30 million.

Dubón will hope to outperform what Fangraphs expects to be an estimated $3.1 million salary for 2024.

He filed for $3.5 million and the Astros filed for $3 million, per ESPN.

His case will be interesting. Dubón won his first Gold Glove in 2023, claiming the award for the American League’s best fielding utility player.

Dubón played seven different positions for the Astros in 2023 with the majority coming at second base. He played second in place of Jose Altuve for much of the first two months of the season as Altuve was recovering from an injury.

At the plate he had a career season, as he slashed .278/.309/.411/.720 with 10 home runs and 46 RBI. His 132 games played were the most of his career.

He joined the Astros during the 2022 season, as he started that year with the San Francisco Giants. He was drafted in the 26th round in 2013 by the Boston Red Sox and later ended up with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he made his MLB debut in 2019. The Brewers traded him to the Giants shortly after his debut.

Even though the Astros and Dubón don’t have a deal now, they can still agree to a deal before they head to the arbitration table.

The six Astros that reached deals on Thursday were outfielder Kyle Tucker, pitcher Framber Valdez, outfielder Chas McCormick and pitchers Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia and Bryan Abreu.