Astros super utility player reportedly to undergo surprise offseason surgery

Eric Cole

Los Angeles Angels v Houston Astros / Logan Riely/GettyImages

The contributions of players like the Houston Astros' Mauricio Dubón often go unnoticed. Dubón doesn't put up video game numbers, nor does he often grace the national baseball highlight reel on a regular basis. Instead, Dubón just always does his job at a reasonable rate at the plate while playing wherever the Astros need him on any given night and that was essential to Houston's eventual AL West title.

All of that said, that doesn't mean that Dubón isn't capable of excelling. Far from it. In fact, the month of September saw Dubón put together one of his best months of the 2024 season, which helped Houston get over the finish line. Little did we know that during that same month, Dubón was dealing with a rather unfortunate injury.

According to reports, Dubón played through a torn ligament in his thumb for the final month of the season, and he will require surgery to correct the problem this offseason.

Mauricio Dubón played the final month of the Astros’ season with a torn ligament in his left thumb that will require surgery, source tells @TheAthletic - https://t.co/kq1bME3dWZ
— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 9, 2024

Astros' Mauricio Dubón played with torn thumb ligament in September, will require offseason surgery

First of all, Dubón is now a certified badass if he wasn't already. Most mortal men would have immediately hit the injured list after tearing a thumb ligament, which apparently happened on a slide on Sept. 6 against the Diamondbacks. Instead, Dubón played another 18 games after the injury and was among the Astros' best hitters during that stretch. He is a real one.

Early estimates suggest that the surgery Dubón requires will take 6-to-8 weeks to recover from. Assuming that he gets the surgery done relatively quickly and there are no setbacks (cross your fingers and toes), Dubón should be more than ready to start the 2025 season, which is going to be very important for both him and the Astros.

Dubón will be entering his second-to-last arbitration year in 2025. Unfortunately, Dubón's last foray into the arbitration process with the Astros was a contentious one; one hopes that he and the team can get on the same page beforehand. If not, the Astros risk alienating a key player on their roster, especially if they hold the injury he played through against him during the talks.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.