We have no idea how the rest of the afternoon is going to go, but 90 minutes before the trade deadline, first-year President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi just pulled off one of the most unequal trades in recent Giants history.
Pomeranz and Ray Black to #Brewers for Dubon, source tells The Athletic. On it: @ByRobertMurray.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 31, 2019
You know who Pomeranz is. Yesterday, I wrote about the Nationals’ interest in the starter-turned-reliever, and just before this trade was announced the Nationals made moves for Daniel Hudson, Roenis Elias, and Hunter Strickland (!) signalling that they didn’t want to pay whatever the Giants were asking for Pomeranz.
And while Ray Black was seemingly worth holding onto, the Giants feel pretty confident in their organizational depth on the reliever side of things to the point that trading away an oft-injured 29 year old along with Pomeranz in order to get another team’s top prospect to fill a strong area of need of their own made more sense. I agree!
The Brewers, meanwhile, were okay with that return in exchange for the #3 prospect in their system. No, seriously.
#SFGiants reportedly acquiring SS/2B Mauricio Dubon from the #Brewers. Dubon, who recently became the 1st player born and raised in Honduras to appear in #MLB, is No. 3 on the @Brewers' Top 30 Prospects list: https://t.co/P9dau0Xc1o pic.twitter.com/ufMhvH2jCt
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 31, 2019
Pipeline’s scouting report rates him as a “50” overall player but just a 35 in power — below major league average. Still!
Dubon can do a little bit of everything on the diamond and offers more than the typical sum-of-all-parts player. He has excellent hand-eye coordination and a quick right-handed bat that helps him make barreled, line-drive contact with relative ease. He also has a good approach, and scouts project him as at least an average hitter. While he’s enjoyed an uptick in power as he’s grown stronger, Dubon is more likely to be a source of doubles and triples than home runs. He’s able to tally some of those extra-base hits thanks to above-average speed that netted him at least 30 steals in three straight seasons.
His 3:1 strikeouts to walk ratio is a little bit higher than the type of player Zaidi seems to prefer — however, we’re talking about just 59 strikeouts in 427 plate appearances, meaning he strikes out just 13.8% of the time — that’s great. His overall solid skillset makes him more like a Stephen Vogt type — at the very least average at everything — with youthful upside (Dubon is just 25). And then there’s this:
Mauricio Dubon is in the top three of players that have been most fun/impressive to watch in the PCL play against the @IowaCubs. Smooth fielder, .300 hitter with some pop without a lot of strikeouts.
— Alex Cohen (@voiceofcohen) July 31, 2019
He leaves the team with the best record in the PCL, @missionsmilb. Big moves.
He was born in Honduras but graduated high school from Capital Christian in Sacramento, so, at the very least, he fits into the Zaidi front office’s recent track record of grabbing California kids. He was originally an international free agent signed by the Red Sox in 2013 before being traded to the Brewers in 2016, which indicates why the Brewers might’ve been more willing to part with him — generally speaking, organizations are less likely to cling onto prospects they didn’t draft or sign originally.
This is the first time I can remember where the Giants used a team’s glaring need for an upgrade to extract a heavy price, one that gives them an immediate boost in one of their thinnest areas of the entire organization: middle infield. There’s a good chance we see Dubon within a month’s time, if not sooner.
A trade like this is exactly why the Giants hired Farhan Zaidi. There’s simply no way the previous regime(s) could make a move like this. And the day’s just getting started.