The Giants made two more trades on May 14th, including their fifth trade in a month with the Seattle Mariners.  But the biggest move was the Giants trading fan favorite Mauricio Dubón to the Houston Astros, in exchange for catcher/first baseman Michael Papierski.  With the Mariners, the Giants acquired outfielder Stuart Fairchild in exchange for infielder Alex Blandino and cash.

Dubón, 27, had played 21 games with the Giants, going .239/.245/.391 with a double and a pair of home runs.  The Giants had originally acquired Dubón in 2019 from the Milwuakee Brewers in exchange for pitchers Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black.  Originally an infielder, Dubón had also began playing center field for the Giants to increase his versatility with the team.

Having been born in Honduras, but growing up in Sacramento, Dubón grew up a Giants fan and was excited to get a chance to play for his childhood favorite team.  Now, he’ll get to play for former Giants manager Dusty Baker in Houston.

Papierski, 26, is hitting .211/.324/.278 through 26 games with Houston’s Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land.  Papierski has split his time fairly evenly between catcher and first base after being primarily a catcher in the past, with 11 games catching and nine at first, along with six games as the DH.  Over his minor league career, he’s batting .220/.358/.328 over five seasons, and is in his second season at Triple-A.  He was originally drafted by the Astros in the 9th round of the 2017 draft.

Papierski will bring extra depth at catcher behind Ricardo Genovés and Jhonny Pereda, although first base is pretty crowded at the moment.

The other Sacramento acquisition was outfielder Stuart Fairchild from the Seattle Mariners.  Fairchild started the season in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, but was designated for assignment on April 19th, and then traded to the Mariners for cash on April 23rd.  Fairchild hit .162/.279/.378 for Reno of the Diamondbacks over 10 games, and then hit .438/.571/.625 for Tacoma over just four games.

Fairchild, 26, was originally drafted in the second round (#38 overall) of the 2017 draft by the Cincinnati Reds.  He was traded from the Reds to the Diamondbacks in August, 2020 as part of the package for pitcher Archie Bradley.  His career numbers are .274/.361/.440.

In exchange for Fairchild, the Giants traded away Triple-A infielder Alex Blandino.  Over 24 games, Blandino had hit .283/.309/.280 with five doubles and a home run.  The Giants signed Blandino as a minor league free agent from the Cincinnati Reds in the offseason.  Since 2018, Blandino has bounced between Triple-A and the Majors, with a career .226/.339/.291 batting line in the Majors over 135 games.