At the end of the 2025 season, Boston Red Sox fans expected the club's infield alignment for the following season to be obvious — Trevor Story would be the shortstop, as the Red Sox said he would, Marcelo Mayer would play second base and Alex Bregman would suit up at third.
Losing Bregman obviously threw a wrench in those plans. Boston then had to pivot to former Milwaukee Brewer and 2025 Rookie of the Year finalist Caleb Durbin to fill out its infield, which should've been an easy switch, since he's also a third baseman. But the Red Sox have been testing out some different alignments early in spring training.
In the first week of training, Durbin has taken many of his reps at third base and Mayer has gotten the most work at second base. On February 18, Red Sox skipper Alex Cora said that Durbin will get some work at second base the following day, and that he and Mayer will both get playing time at the hot corner during their first two Grapefruit League games over the weekend.
After Boston traded for Durbin, some fans assumed he'd be its starting second baseman. A January 21 report from Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic stated that a Red Sox source shared a preference for Mayer to play third base, which would keep him on the same side of the infield as his eventual future home at shortstop (subscription required).
Red Sox position battle for second and third base heating up between Caleb Durbin and Marcelo Mayer
The Red Sox called Mayer up to play third base while Bregman healed a quad injury from May into June. He played well there, flashing his smooth defense, despite having just six games of experience at the corner in the minor leagues. He made one error over 248.2 innings at third base in the majors.
Durbin also played third base in his rookie season, with a few appearances at shortstop and second base. He ranked perfectly in the league average in terms of OAA and logged 51st percentile range over 131 appearances at third base. Durbin posted the majority of his minor league innings at second base (1286.2 frames) and he played there in every level of the minors. Despite his big league experience, he could be better suited to second base than Mayer.
Second and third base will be one of the tighter position battles at Sox spring training, along with the fifth rotation spot. It will be interesting to see if Boston prioritizes Durbin's innings of MLB experience at third base or keeps Mayer there to steer his development as the shortstop of the future.