Houston Astros Utility Man Will Undergo an Offseason Thumb Surgery

The Houston Astros will hope this player can get healthy in the offseason.

John Froschauer-Imagn Images

Houston Astors utility player Mauricio Dubón is set to undergo offseason thumb surgery to repair an injury that he played through during the last month of the season according to a report from Chandler Rome of The Athletic.

In a matchup against the Arizona Diamondbacks on September 6, Dubón left the game and missed the next game but would return just two days after the injury as a defensive substitute. It came out after the fact that Dubón had a torn UCL in his left thumb and played through it, even improving his numbers down the stretch as the team pushed for the division and played in the Wild Card round.

The recovery for Dubón is expected to just be six-eight weeks after the surgery, meaning that returning for spring training should not be a concern for the versatile 30-year-old.

Dubón was acquired by Houston early in the 2022 season and since then, he has logged 352 games played for the Astros while moving all around the diamond. He has primarily served as a left fielder, but has played pretty much every position wherever he was needed. In both 2023 and 2024, Dubón has logged at least one game in every position in both the outfield and the infield.

2023 was a career year at the plate for Dubón, hitting .278 with an OPS of .720 with a 2.7 WAR along with 10 home runs and 46 RBIs. He was also able to win a Gold Glove as a utility man last season..

Those numbers dropped slightly this season, but he was at his best down the stretch and had 2 hits in the quick two-games-to-none Wild Card sweep against Detroit. This offseason will be Dubón's final season of arbitration after earning $3.5 million for the 2024 season and projected to see an increase in that number this offseason.

How much the team sees Dubón in their future plans when he hits free agency in 2026 remains to be seen, but he has certainly been a steady and reliable presence both in the field and at the plate over the last 2.5 seasons.