It’s fun when the Braves make it easy for me to come up with a question.
They traded for Mauricio Dubon. He’s the correct definition of a utility guy: not only can he play all over the diamond and has played all over the diamond, he’s actually good enough defensively to warrant the usage. This differs from a lot of “utility guys” who simply don’t have a position and aren’t very good at most of the harder assignments, but get used there anyway because teams value “flexibility.” Thankfully, teams are better
about this sort of thing now, but it always brings to mind my nemesis, Emilio Bonifacio, who was only really good in the corner outfield and fine at second base, but got shoved into shortstop and center field and the like anyway.
Anyway, back to the present. The Braves have Mauricio Dubon. They no longer have Nick Allen. Will they get another shortstop and give Dubon the reins to an actually-used utility super-sub role? Will he just become the shortstop because they can’t find any offseason alternatives to their liking? Will they look for a shortstop upgrade midseason instead? It’s up to you to guess. (Accounting for injury makes this an impossible task… what if Dubon is the one that gets hurt?)
