Milwaukee Brewers to call up Mauricio Dubon

The Milwaukee Brewers were blown out by the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight, 12-2, but adding injury to insult was the collision between Keston Hiura and Orlando Arcia while the two players both attempted to field the same batted ball in the eighth inning, a grounder off the bat of Colin Moran. Hiura came away from the ordeal relatively unscathed, but Arcia was carted off the field after taking the brunt of the impact with his left arm and shoulder. Orlando passed all the neurological tests in the immediate aftermath, but the physical effects of the crash appear to have him headed for the injured list. In his place, the team is reportedly preparing to call up prospect Mauricio Dubon from Triple-A.

Dubon, 24, joined the organization prior to the 2017 season. He came over from Boston as part of the package for Tyler Thornburg, a deal considered to be one of David Stearns’ greatest heists. He has since risen to become Milwaukee’s current #5 prospect as rated by MLB Pipeline. The slightly-built, slick-fielding middle infielder came back from a torn ACL suffered last year to post a .306/.343/.487 slash line in 357 plate appearances for the San Antonio Missions, good for an about-average 99 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Notable, though, are Dubon’s 14 home runs in 2019, the first time he has ever topped double-digits in any full season of his career. He will become the first native-born and raised Honduran player to make it to Major League Baseball.

With Arcia on the shelf for what is currently an undetermined amount of time, look for Dubon to get plenty of run as the regular shortstop for the Milwaukee Nine ahead of the trade deadline. How he performs, as well as Arcia’s timeline, could go a long way towards informing Slingin’ Stearns as to whether or not he should pursue outside help at the position in advance of July 31st.

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs