This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Shawn Dubin's first Major League outing began with a strikeout of Brandon Nimmo on three pitches on Monday night. No matter what happens for the rest of his life, Dubin was in the books. He could tell his grandchildren he pitched in the big leagues with the best players in the world.
Dubin, called up from Triple-A a day earlier, threw another scoreless inning in the eighth before things went awry in the ninth. The Mets tagged him for five runs to punctuate an 11-1 win over the Astros. After the game, Dubin spent several minutes on the field talking to more than a dozen friends and family members about an unforgettable experience, results notwithstanding.
The pitching line of his debut didn’t matter as much as the road Dubin took to reach the big leagues at 27 years old. He attended college hoping to play soccer but wound up with a baseball in his hand. He took a year off from school to work at Lowe's and attended four different schools before the Astros took him in the 13th round of the 2018 MLB Draft and signed him for $1,000.
“It was $600 after taxes,” Dubin said. “I lost it all in one night.”
A wiry 170-pound right-hander, Dubin is the Astros' No. 23-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline. He possesses an electric fastball/slider combination and has gone from averaging 90 mph at NAIA Georgetown College -- his final college stop -- to sitting at 95-97 mph. Dubin missed parts of the previous two years with arm injuries that likely delayed his debut.
The fact Dubin even reached the big leagues at all is amazing, considering his path.
He attended Jamestown Community College out of high school, hoping to play soccer and baseball, but eventually focused on baseball. He was there for only a semester before he took a year off and worked as a contractor for Lowe's, driving two hours a day from his home in Allegany, N.Y., to Rochester. He hauled shingles onto roofs, which he says helped him get stronger.
“My roommate [at Jamestown] was on the baseball team and he said, ‘Yeah, just focus on that,’” Dubin said.
Next, he went to Erie Community College, where he lasted only a semester. That’s because the University of Buffalo offered him a chance to play. He played there two years before the program was shuttered entering his senior year. Now what?
“My grades were so bad I had to go to the NAIA,” Dubin said. “It ended up being the best decision I ever made. The lessons I learned, it was pretty incredible.”
Dubin landed at Georgetown, which is outside of Lexington, Ky., after the volunteer assistant at Buffalo took a coaching job there and talked him into finishing his college career at the school. He was the first player drafted out of Georgetown in 21 years.
“It’s tough to put into words,” Dubin said. “It’s been a crazy journey, a lot of stops along the way. It’s a good thing I’ve found a lot of people in my corner that helped me and pushed me along the way. I’m just grateful to them and grateful to the Astros for this experience.”
Dubin reached Triple-A in 2021 after traveling with the Astros during the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened season in ‘20. He appeared in nine games (five starts) this year at Sugar Land, while dealing with a pronator strain that sidelined him. He had a 7.96 ERA in Triple-A, but the Astros needed a fresh arm. And he was on the 40-man roster.
Who knows how long Dubin will remain in the big leagues, but the fact he made it at all is a testament to his perseverance and those who believed in him.
“I got my whole family here, and that’s all they’ve been saying is, ‘Dude, the road you took to get here, it was about as unconventional as you can get,’” Dubin said. “I had a good support system, a lot of people telling me, ‘You can do it.’ A lot of people, friends and family especially, supported me along the way.”