Mauricio Dubon rejoined the Giants at summer camp and brashly told his mates that he wants to win a Gold Glove in center field. His outfield coach, Antoan Richardson, declared that Dubon is a better outfielder now than he was in March.
How is that possible for a guy who has totaled 44 professional innings in the outfield, in the 2016 Arizona Fall League?
Who had to borrow a teammate’s outfield glove to play center in spring training when he misplaced the only one he had?
Who spent all but a few weeks of the hiatus holed up in a Miami apartment complex?
In the midst of a pandemic that hit South Florida hard, Dubon was not chancing trips to local parks to chase flyballs. He mostly worked out at home and had to buy PVC pipe and netting at Ace Hardware to fashion a small batting cage.
Yet here is Richardson, speaking about Dubon: “In the short time we’ve been on the field in summer camp I’ve told him this: The improvement I’ve seen from spring training till now is positive, and I’m optimistic he can play the outfield if we need him to.”
The Giants want last year’s trade-deadline acquisition from Milwaukee to become a super-utility player, gliding seamlessly from second base to his native position at short to the outfield. Sure enough, when the 25-year-old started his first intrasquad game Saturday, he was incenter. He had no flyballs hit his way in his three innings.
In the months after Major League Baseball padlocked spring training, Dubon used his phone, laptop and mind to try to become a better outfielder, since he could not use his legs, speed or instincts to get reps.
Dubon “emptied his Rolodex,” as Richardson quaintly put it, and called every major-league center fielder he knew to pick their brains. It was an impressive lineup, too.
It included Jackie Bradley Jr. of the Red Sox, Dubon’s original team; 10-year big-leaguer Alejandro De Aza, a sometimes workout partner; Brewers minor-league outfield and baserunning coordinator Quinton Berry, who was Dubon’s minor-league teammate; Adam Jones, who is playing in Japan after 14 major-league seasons and was referred to Dubon by Berry and Giants outfielder Joey Rickard.
Dubon said he drained every ounce of advice he could from these and other players on the ins and outs of playing the outfield. Jones was especially helpful because he was a converted shortstop, too.
The wisdom that Dubon sought and received was more mental than physical.
“I know how to catch flyballs,” Dubon told The Chronicle in an interview Friday. “For me it’s how can I forget about being a shortstop and be a center fielder when I’m playing center? I was thinking I’m just going to play center field like I play shortstop, and that’s not true.
“I’ve got to be a center fielder. I had to forget everything I knew and start at level one.”
In an interview from Milwaukee, Berry said he gained “huge respect” for Dubon for reaching out to him and the others.
“It speaks volumes about who he is,” said Berry, the center fielder on the 2012 Tigers team the Giants swept in the World Series.
Berry told Dubon to slow the game down because he has more time to react in the outfield, to battle the instinct to move from side to side as infielders do when a ball is hit and instead break deeper, because an outfielder can always adjust by coming back to the plate.
“It was just understanding what the outfield is really about,” Berry said. “It’s controlling chaos for him and not allowing things to get out of hand. Singles are singles, doubles are doubles, and don’t play them into anything extra.
“Infielders can try to make spectacular plays because they have somebody behind them. It’s different in the outfield.”
The advice he received is second nature to outfielders, just as playing the infield is for Dubon: Make sure to position yourself properly for each hitter. Use your athleticism. Study routes and, “at the end of the day just make sure you catch the ball. You can get a good jump and take a good route, but if you don’t catch the ball, it’s worthless.”
Dubon also furthered his education by watching hours of video of teammates and others.
Dubon carried his newfound knowledge to the field when he returned to San Francisco. He said he notices a difference and feels more comfortable in the outfield. This is practice, of course. The proof will come in games.
During his limited outfield time in the Cactus League, Dubon demonstrated his athleticism and range, but also his inexperience with a couple of bad routes.
Richardson still predicts success, though, because Dubon “is a confident athlete, intuitive, his instincts are good. I can definitely see the work he’s done now.”
Dubon had a simple motivation for “emptying his Rolodex.” The Giants have plenty of infielders and need more help in the outfield. The better he can play it, the more starts he will get.
But there is something else, an ambition that has made him a popular teammates and fan favorite in the short time he has been a Giant.
“I was always taught, if you’re going to do something, you better be good at it,” he said. “I want to be one of the best. I don’t want be the guy like, ‘Oh, we can’t put him out there.’ I want to be the guy where they say, ‘If you put him in center field, he’s a center fielder. If you put him at shortstop, he’s a shortstop.’”
Henry Schulman covers the Giants for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman
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