Mauricio Dubon looked as if he had been a center fielder his entire life last season. Despite embracing his utility role with the Giants, he had trained to be a shortstop as long as he could remember.
He spent a majority of the 2020 season out in center field while getting limited time at shortstop and second base at the beginning. Dubon wishes he would have begun his career preparing to play in the outfield.
"They want me to still be versatile, they want me to work on short and second, and obviously centerfield," Dubon said on the latest episode of the San Francisco Giants’ Chalk Talk. "But when I played centerfield -- I enjoy playing baseball, but when I get out there, it felt like so much fun just going out there and making plays and seeing the game from a different angle, it's crazy. But you know I'm ready to play anywhere.”
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Dubon was up for the challenge of switching positions, and said in some ways, playing in centerfield is a lot like shortstop.
"It's crazy -- I worked my whole big life to be a big-league shortstop, and in two months they told me I got to be a center fielder,” Dubon said. “And if I would have known, I had the talent and I would put in the work, and centerfield was going to be fun, I would have went back and said, 'You know what, let me work in centerfield too.' ”
Still, Dubon has been told to continue to be a versatile defensive player, which he’s happy to do. But he can’t get over how much of a blast center field has been.
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“Centerfield has been really fun for me, especially with the team we have,” Dubon said.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said he appreciates the fact that Dubon has the ability to move around at any position as those players don’t come around very often.