When news broke that the Houston Astros had traded utilityman Mauricio Dubón on Wednesday night, fans rushed to social media to voice their displeasure with getting rid of a fan favorite.

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A day later, Dubón, himself, posted a message on Instagram, saying, “Part of the journey is the end …”

In the post featuring a photo of his 1-year-old son Luciano wearing a full Astros uniform, Dubón wrote a message from himself and his wife Nancy.

“Thank you, Houston, for giving me a home when I needed it most,” he wrote. “You embraced a kid from Honduras and made him feel like he belonged. My family and I will forever be grateful. To my teammates that’s the hardest goodbye. The relationships we built in that clubhouse will stay with me for the rest of my life. I’ll always have Houston in my heart.”

The Astros sent Dubón to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Nick Allen in a move that cut the Astros payroll by about $4 million. In his four years in Houston, Dubón saw time at every position except pitcher and catcher and won a pair of American League utility Gold Glove awards. However, he was entering the final year of salary arbitration and team control and was projected by MLB Trade Rumors to earn $5.8 million next season. Allen, whose offensive numbers are worse than those of Dubón, can play second base, shortstop and third base and was a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop this season.

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The Astros acquired Dubón from the San Francisco Giants for veteran minor league catcher Michael Papierski in May 2022 in one of the shrewdest moves in James Click’s tenure as general manager.

Dubón, who is the only active big leaguer to be born in Honduras and just the second all-time, was part of the 2022 championship team, although he appeared in that postseason primarily as a late-inning defensive replacement. He had the best season of his career in 2023 when he hit .278 with 10 home runs and posted a 2.7 WAR while winning his first Gold Glove. His offensive numbers tailed off a bit in each of his past two seasons, but he won another Gold Glove this year, starting in at least 10 games at five different positions, while hitting .241 with a .644 OPS.

This article originally published at ‘The hardest goodbye’: Mauricio Dubón posts farewell message to fans, teammates after Astros trade.