SF Giants: Was it a mistake to trade Steven Duggar and Mauricio Dubón?

The SF Giants have been woeful on defense this year. Was it a mistake for the team to trade away two of their best defenders in Steven Duggar and Mauricio Dubón ?

SF Giants: Was it a mistake to trade Steven Duggar and Mauricio Dubón ?

It is no secret to anyone who has watched the SF Giants this year that their defense has been terrible. They currently rank near the bottom of MLB in defensive stats and that is backed up by the eye test. seemingly time and time again this year the Giants have shot themselves in the foot with a bad play on defense.

This begs the question: was it a mistake for the SF Giants to trade away Steven Duggar and Mauricio Dubon?

First, it is important to keep in mind that the Giants were faced with very difficult roster decisions. With players coming back from injury and several players being out of options, something had to give and it resulted in Duggar and Dubón being traded away.

But with the woes on defense, should the Giants have thought harder about trading away these two players?

Starting with Duggar, we always knew that he was a great defender. Even in his first few years with the team when he was struggling to put things together offensively, he still provided value on the roster as a speedy outfielder who could cover a lot of ground.

With Dubón, he was a utility man through and through. He had a great arm which allowed him to play at shortstop and third as well as second base, and his speed and agility allowed him to play a really solid center field for the team when necessary.

Without those guys, the defense has become much weaker. Their options in center field are more limited with basically only Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater being able to reliably play center. Both are solid there, but they lack the speed and agility of Dubón or Duggar.

And in the infield the Giants have had to lean heavily on Thairo Estrada and Wilmer Flores up the middle, especially with Brandon Crawford's injuries. We know both guys are capable of making good plays, but they are less capable defenders than Dubón and the defense has suffered as a result.

Being the GM for a baseball team is tough. If it was not Dubón or Duggar being traded then it likely would have been someone else that, in an ideal world, would have been worth hanging onto.

And with both players, you could make the argument that their performance at the plate, or lack thereof, is ultimately what cinched their fate as being the odd men out on the roster.

It is tough to second guess the front office after they assembled a team that won 107 games last year, but with the recent woes on defense it is easy to wonder if trading both Duggar and Dubón was a mistake.