April 18: Milwaukee has made it official, announcing that Durbin has been recalled from Triple-A Nashville.
April 17: The Brewers are set to recall infield prospect Caleb Durbin tomorrow, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Milwaukee announced this morning that infielder Oliver Dunn had been optioned to Triple-A Nashville but did not provide a corresponding move. Durbin, whom the Brewers acquired in the trade sending Devin Williams to the Yankees, is already on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will not be necessary. He’ll make his MLB debut the first time he’s in the lineup (presumably tomorrow).
A 14th-round pick by the Braves in 2021, Durbin has already been traded twice in his career. He went from Atlanta to New York in exchange for lefty Lucas Luetge, and the Yankees coupled him up with Nestor Cortes in a trade bringing Williams to the Bronx this past offseason. He’ll now get the first big league opportunity of his career with his third organization.
The 25-year-old Durbin has hit at every stop in his minor league career. Listed at a stocky 5’7″ and 183 pounds, he has below-average power but plus contact skills and plus speed. The righty-swinging speedster is out to a .278/.316/.481 start in Nashville, where he’s already tallied a pair of homers, five doubles and three steals in 58 plate appearances. His premium contact ability has been on full display; Durbin has fanned only five times in those 58 plate appearances (8.6%). He’s walked more than he’s fanned (or posted identical walk and strikeout totals) and tallied at least 31 steals in every full season of his professional career thus far.
Second base has been Durbin’s primary position in pro ball, but he has 733 career innings at third base, which has been his most frequent position this season in Nashville. He’s also played 370 innings at shortstop and has a handful of appearances both in center field and in left field. He’s likely to slot in as a regular or semi-regular at third base in the short term, but depending on future acquisitions or player development success stories, Durbin has the skill set to be a versatile and valuable utility option.
Enough of the season has elapsed that Durbin can’t earn a full year of major league service time in 2025. If he’s in the majors to stay, he’d be controllable all the way through 2031. He’d finish out the current season with 150 days of service, putting him on pace for Super Two status and four trips through arbitration rather than the standard three (the first of which would come following the 2027 season).
Dunn, 27, is a quality defensive player but hasn’t provided value at the plate in parts of two MLB seasons with Milwaukee. He’s a .206/.260/.291 hitter in 145 big league plate appearances, including just a .167/.205/.222 output in 41 plate appearances this season. Dunn and journeyman Vinny Capra have handled all of the Brewers’ reps at third base this season, though the latter has struggled even more than Dunn (and is out of minor league options, meaning he couldn’t be sent down without being designated for assignment and clearing waivers). Brewers third basemen are batting a combined .150/.188/.233 on the season, placing them 29th in batting average, last in on-base percentage, 25th in slugging percentage and 29th in wRC+ (18).
AA picking up everyone, but how’d he let Durbin get away? He’d be starting SS over Nick Allen rn.
AA traded him for Lucas Luetge in 2022.
I watched Durbin wrestle in high school. He’s a very good athlete. He’s almost going home, close enough for family and friends from Chicago. Happy for the kid!
Best of luck, Durby!
Wow! That was quick…
Love it when a young (ish) guy gets a shot. Good luck!
Little Giant ready to go!
Not only should Durbin be called up but so should Martinez, Cameron and Yoho. Then take Capra, Bauers and Payamps off the roster. Then Cameron can be the fifth outfielder, with Frelick handling some third. Yellich can play some more left. Martinez and Conteras can do more DHing with Haase catching more to get Conteras off his feet some. Make it happen Arnold
That is a LOT of in-season change that was not prepared for in Spring Training. They arent moving Frelick out of his position, especially to third. As far as Yoho, he will be up as soon as his service time will provide the extra year of control. Ready for Payamps to mosey on down the road.
I wouldn’t shut the door on Frelick playing third, but it is a long shot. Much depends on Yelich and Blake Perkins regaining full health, as well as Tyler Black’s preferred position when his wrist heals. And it would also depend on Durbin failing at third, which I don’t think anyone wants.
lol Black ain’t got a preferred position and he’s lookin like a bust anyway. Kest 2.0 without the half season of bombs
Frelick at 3b? Is that even a thing? Black as stated, has become Hiura 2.0. no defense and ruined at the plate. He’s maybe the replacement at 1b to a Hoskins injury. Corner IFs have just stopped growing on trees.
David Stearns never drafted corner infielders, and Matt Arnold’s handful are still in the minors, although Ernesto Martinez Jr. is ripe to play first base. Frelick worked out at 2B and 3B last spring with Dustin Pedroia and has volunteered to fill in if needed. I could see Frelick as the last resort at 3B late in the season.
Frelick played 3B already this year saw him standing there against the Reds on a Saturday night
It would appear 1 inning with 2 putouts to your point.
@cwizzy – I’m pretty sure Yoho’s service time is good to go at this point. He can come up anytime.
They’ll get a few IP of some arm they’ll DFA right before calling him up.
Durbin looks like a typical product of the Brewers farm system, and I mean that as a compliment!
Knowing this team, he’s going to be a productive hitter with good defense!
Except that he’s a product of ATL and NY systems. But your point feels good.
his defense has not looked good at Nashville or in spring training. He will have to hit to avoid being a net negative
A crappy player but trying to justify awful trade so good luck losers
seething with resentment! Ok Cubber.
Anyway, it’s hard to see Durdin as much more than Freddie Patek at best, but it’s still likely somewhat of an iimprovement over Dunnpra..
Don’t knock Patek. He was a pest, and could back it up. Thorn in the Yankees’ side.
???
Durbin is not a third baseman. Brewers will find that out soon enough.
I agree I think the would be best to put Durbin at second, Turang at short and Ortiz at third. Think Ortiz at third would help him relax at the plate
Turang won the GG playing 2B. He’s NOT moving off that position lol
He came up as a SS and has the skill set to play SS , he’d be even more valuable as a SS than a 2B.
Turang committed himself to 2b. It’s like Yelich won’t play 1b.
Close but it was the Platinum Glove
I’m not sure he’s a second baseman either
Best of luck to Durbin. But he’s no Altuve.
Brew crew opted for Durban Poison. Go figure.
Dude can’t hit lefties. Seems like a waste to call him up before he’s ready
He’ll fit right in with the Brewers lineup then!
Inb4 “HoW cAn He Be ‘ReCaLlEd’ If He HaSn’T aLrEaDy MaDe HiS mLb DeBuT yEt !?”
I have to imagine Capra is next off the roster as soon as anyone else is ready
I recall Central Park in fall
Now going on Year 7 of this contention window where they don’t have an everyday third baseman. 3rd base has been a giant hole on this team since Travis Shaw fell off and they still refuse to address the position in FA, instead choosing to cobble together a bunch of random controllable players in hopes of something sticking.
They’ve drafted for 3b or signed SSs to move to 3b as they outgrow SS, but then they don’t produce to be called up. Ortiz was near tops defensively at 3b last season. They shouldn’t be playing him as SS. Turang shouldn’t have wussed out for SS.
Blame it on David Stearns. He drafted only middle infielders and center fielders. Matt Arnold’s first draft pick as GM was third baseman Brock Wilken, and other corner infielders have followed in subsequent drafts. It takes time to develop them.
For sure, that’s why they should have done a short term type of deal for a 3B until Brock Wilken or others are ready. To bridge that gap. Because they are competitive now with a very clear hole in the lineup.
That’s hard when quality corner infielders are needed by many teams.
But wait, I thought Stearns/Counsell were regarded as baseball “geniuses”? lol
The idea of picking only middle infielders/center fielders was to just draft the best athletes available. when you are younger, the best players are always put at SS and CF.. So he always drafted those guys early. Here Arnold has been focusing on paying a lot of money to other positions for guys in later rounds that want to go to college and fall because of that. They then just draft a dude who’s super athletic in the first round but not as talented so they have more bonus pool money for later rounds.
While one of the youngest teams In MLB, does this rank them near the shortest MLB teams?
Yelich is tall, so is megill at what 6’7, and Abner seems fairly tall, when Misiorowski gets called up he’s what 6’7-6’8 but I get your point, frelick, durbin, even turang seems short but he’s around 6’0, how tall is Contreras haha
Think they are meaning all these young position players they have are all short kings
Tyler Black is short whenever he plays again. BREF shows only 5 of 13 position players at 6 ft or taller for the Brewers. Durbin will make it 5 of 14.
Some of you just figuring this out? It’s the Counsell/Murphy model for Brewer players. It’s also why the roster is overwhelmingly vanilla.
When your big bats off the bench are Dunn, Capra, Bauers, Collins. There are issues.
Also take a look at the “quality” of the high end ticket lower bowl seats in Milwaukee versus other ballparks. Yet, typically in the top 10-15 of MLB regarding the average cost for a fan to attend a game. That should give you some insight into the actual goals of Brewer ownership.
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