Caleb Durbin would have preferred a better start to his Boston Red Sox career. Durbin remains hitless through five games after going 0-for-18 with five strikeouts in the series losses to the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros. He also left Great American Ball Park with a fielding error on his 2026 ledger.
That being said, we are less than 4% into the season of a sport in which guys are called superstars if they succeed 30% of the time. Is an 0-for-18 start really consequential ... like, at all?
It's totally not, even if certain Red Sox supporters are already at work demeaning Durbin for his 0-for-18 and laughably labeling him a non-starter.
Caleb Durbin is 0-12 with 5 strikeouts. He’s hit just 2 balls out of the infield on opening weekend for the Red Sox.
— Jordan Moore (@iJordanMoore) March 29, 2026
He should not be the starting third baseman for a Major League team. pic.twitter.com/yMdmaLaDaS
Anyone thinking that Durbin isn't an MLB starter has forgotten that he was the starting third baseman for a 97-win Milwaukee Brewers team last season. Oh, and that was also Durbin's rookie season, in which he finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting. But surely, this five-game sample size with the Red Sox is the more accurate indication of his talent than his .334 on-base percentage in 136 games last season?
Surely, Durbin's 96th percentile whiff rate and 98th percentile strikeout rate in 2025 were just completely undone by his five strikeouts to start the year?
It's unbelievable how a productive rookie season on MLB's best regular-season club, in addition to a hot 2026 spring training, suddenly means nothing in the eyes of some because Durbin didn't get a hit over a 96-hour window in Cincinnati.
Anti-Caleb Durbin takes three games into the season are an embarrassing look for Red Sox fans
It's also hilarious that any Red Sox fans are overreacting to Durbin's 0-for-18 start after watching Rafael Devers start the 2025 season going 0-for-19 with 15 strikeouts in a Red Sox uniform, including an MLB-record 10 Ks in his first three games. Devers ended up with 35 homers, 109 RBI, and an .851 OPS in 2025. He'd already hit 20 home runs and driven in 58 before getting traded to the San Francisco Giants. In sum, Devers' terrible start didn't mean anything.
Is Caleb Durbin the hitter that Rafael Devers is? No, of course not. But 136 games in 2025 were a big enough sample size to show that Durbin can consistently produce at the MLB level. And if that sample size is deemed too small, why were Red Sox fans so convinced of Roman Anthony's guaranteed superstardom after just 71 games?
The Durbin hate this early in the season makes absolutely no sense, and it probably wouldn't be as aggressive if the Red Sox had left Cincy with two wins instead of one. Every series loss needs its scapegoats, and that desire is intensified in the opening week of the season, when overreactions are far too easily embraced. Durbin is a grinder and fierce competitor. He's going to be just fine, if anyone needs reassurance (it sure sounds like it).