NORTH PORT, Fla. -- What did Braves shortstop Mauricio Dubón think about getting a chance to talk about hitting with his childhood idol Chipper Jones on Thursday morning?
“There’s no coincidence that he came here, talked to me a little bit and I got three hits after it,” Dubón said.
Dubón actually said this a few hours before he doubled to begin the bottom of the first inning of Saturday’s game against the Orioles. So, he actually tallied four straight hits, including two doubles, after talking shop with the man, who led him and many other kids of the past few decades to wear No. 10.
Like countless others, Dubón might never hit like Jones. But he plans to at least partly resemble the Hall of Fame third baseman’s appearance in the batter’s box.
Dubón has asked Rawlings to design bats that have the blue stripe that sat near the top of the handle and just below the trademark, like the bats Jones used throughout most of his great career.
“Even my wife knew about Chipper and she didn’t know baseball,” Dubón said. “My wife’s grandparents are big Braves fans and that’s all they would talk about. My wife was like, 'I don’t know how he looks, but I know who he is.' Now she knows the game. But it’s a pretty big deal back home.”
Dubón proudly owns the distinction of being the only person born and raised in Honduras to play Major League Baseball. His baseball interest was fueled by TBS beaming Braves games to his family home on a daily basis. He still quickly rattles off the 2003 Atlanta lineup that entertained him when he was 9.
Needless to say, Dubón was happy in November, when he learned the Astros had traded him to Atlanta. He was briefly introduced to Jones during a series at Truist Park a couple years ago. But Thursday marked the first time the shortstop got to talk to one of the best switch-hitters in baseball history about the art of hitting.
“Listening to him talk and picking his brain, he’s just able to simplify stuff and make it make sense,” Dubón said. “It’s just different when a guy like that talks.”
Dubón was recognized as the American League’s best defensive utility man when he received a Gold Glove after both the 2023 and ’25 seasons. He’s been a slightly-below average offensive producer over the past few years. But now that he’s got Chipper on his side, he might add a little more value with the bat.
“I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder,” Dubón said. “Every year, I’ve wanted to prove to people what I can do. People are always going to second guess. In the beginning, they’re doubters, and then it’s, ‘You know, the guy can play.’ I’m excited to show everybody that I can play.”
Dubón tied for the seventh-highest Fielding Run Value (6) among all MLB shortstops in 2025. Why is seventh-best impressive? Well, this is a cumulative stat, and he played just 206 1/3 innings as a shortstop. That’s 855 1/3 fewer innings than Jeremy Peña, the Astros' starting shortstop, whose FRV was also 6.
Too small of a sample size? Well, Dubón is tied for the 15th-highest FRV (11) among all shortstops going back to 2021, despite 55 players logging more innings at the position than him during this span.
These defensive metrics create confidence that Dubón will more than capably handle the shortstop role while Ha-Seong Kim misses an early portion of the season while recovering from a right middle finger injury.
And the hitting tips from Chipper could help him and his “younger brother” Jake Garcia, a 14-year-old aspiring player who attends Sacramento’s Bradshaw Christian School. This sibling relationship began after Garcia’s parents gave Dubón a chance to leave Honduras when he was 15 and play high school baseball in California.
“After we talked to Chipper the other day, the first thing I did when I talked to my little brother was tell him all about it,” Dubón said. “He’s a freshman in high school now and I want him to learn what I’m learning.”