Caleb Durbin isn't the third baseman most Boston Red Sox fans imagined they'd open the 2026 season — or any of the next couple of seasons — with. But it hasn't taken Boston long to embrace him after his early results at spring training.
Durbin has delivered at the plate and on the dirt. His tendency to pull the ball has made good use of the faux-Green Monster in lest field at JetBlue Park, he doesn't strike out and his defense has been smooth and solid. Besides how good Durbin has looked early in his Red Sox tenure, the team recently got another (accidental) endorsement of their trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I remember it being hard to trade him,” New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said (via Ian Browne of MLB.com). “...Just a good ballplayer, all around. Can play multiple positions. Has the running game in there. Has a little bit of sock, but really good bat-to-ball skills. Knows the zone. Even though we were getting a frontline closer, which I was excited about, it was hard to see Durbin go just because he is a quality player.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone says newest Red Sox infielder Caleb Durbin was 'hard to trade' to Brewers before 2025 season
Before Durbin became a Brewer, he was an up-and-coming Yankees prospect in a largely underwhelming farm system. New York shipped him to Milwaukee to land Devin Williams, and Red Sox fans know well how that went for their division rivals.
Boston's many offseason pivots from Alex Bregman to Ketel Marte to Nico Hoerner (and more) to Durbin left some fans feeling underwhelmed about the addition. But Boone's is far from the only approval of the Durbin trade the Red Sox have heard, and he's been on the team for less than a month.
Durbin batted .287/.396/.471 with an .867 OPS over 82 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre the year before the Yankees traded him to the Brewers. He made his big league debut in 2025, batted .256/.334/.387 with elite strikeout and whiff rates and league-average defense at third base. His well-rounded effort landed him third place in National League Rookie of the Year voting, all while the closer Williams posted a career-worst season in the Bronx.
The Red Sox didn't need Boone's accidental endorsement to know how well they rebounded from losing out on Bregman — Durbin and Willson Contreras have delivered in their short tenures with Boston so far (yes, we know, the games don't matter yet). If Durbin becomes the player Boone described, and the Red Sox have a history of helping former Yankees thirve, he could be a pain in New York's side for the duration of his contract.