Caleb Durbin is making his big league debut tonight, as he’s hitting ninth against A’s right-hander J.T. Ginn. The Brewers promoted Durbin from Triple-A Nashville this morning, optioning out Oliver Dunn in the process. Manager Pat Murphy confirmed before the game that the Brewers will use Durbin as their primary third baseman (relayed by Todd Rosiak of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
Durbin joined the Brewers alongside Nestor Cortes in the Devin Williams trade. The righty-hitting infielder was coming off a .275/.388/.451 batting line over 90 minor league games during his final season in the Yankees system. New York added him to the 40-man roster rather than risk losing him in the Rule 5 draft. They traded him a couple weeks later.
The 25-year-old hit .259 with a pair of homers and 10 steals over 16 games during Spring Training. Milwaukee optioned him, tabbing Dunn and Vinny Capra to split time at the hot corner. They haven’t produced. Brewers third basemen have hit an MLB-worst .150/.188/.233 with one longball in 67 plate appearances. Dunn had a .205 on-base percentage without a home run in 41 trips to the plate. Capra, who is out of minor league options, has three hits without a walk and 10 strikeouts in 13 games.
Durbin has been out to a much better start in Nashville. He hit .278/.316/.481 with a couple homers over 13 games. He’s not going to provide much power, but he has excellent bat-to-ball skills and plus speed. Durbin stole 31 bases in 35 attempts last year. He joins Joey Ortiz, Brice Turang and Rhys Hoskins on Murphy’s infield. Jake Bauers can spell Hoskins at first base, while Capra is on hand as a utility option.
Will be shopping for a baseman in July. Hitting .275 at AAA does not qualify you for an everyday big league job. Not mention Durbin stinks defensively
Read before you hit post. You’ll thank me.
Still hate that the Braves gave Durbin away to the Yankees for the totally worthless Lucas Luetge.
He should have been given the job coming out of spring training.
Good move by the Brewers. Like how Arnold does moves early if you know they don’t work out. Now it’s time to also bring up Martinez jr, Yoho up too , move on from Payamps and Bauer too. Then if Henderson, Patrick, and Preister keep pitching good in the rotation just trade Civale and Cortez when they are ready maybe even trade Quintana at the deadline if the rotation of Peralta, Woodruff, Myers,Patrick, Preister, and Henderson are doing good. With Ashby in swing man. Then when Black comes back he can take Collins spot or even Cameron
Milwaukee’s left side of the infield is easily the worst in the majors, and adding another undersized slap hitter won’t make anyone forget Adames.
You’re kidding right Turang himself will replace his offense. He won’t have as many homeruns but he will definitely be very close to him in war. Turang,Ortiz, Frelick, Mitchell, Chourio, Durbin will make a lot more contact and get on more which will give everyone more at bats through out the games and season. That’s going help them score more. It will be better then the all or nothing strikeout prone of Weimer, Tellez,Adames,Wong, Renfroe,Urias, Ruf,Voit, Tapia, Taylor.
“Turang himself will replace Adames”??!! What are you smokin’? Or better yet, you might want to come out of your bubble once in awhile?
Adames was hardly an “all or nothing” hitter and doesn’t belong in that list of players you mentioned.
Not kidding at all. Failing to cash in with the bases loaded is this team’s signature move. And all I limited my point here, was to the left side of the infield. Ortiz is dogshit and a 5’6″ singles machine to replace Willy ain’t cutting it. Durbin blooped an ERROR to Andujar yesterday, and hit a topper to 3rd and beat it out. Neither was impressive. Vinny Rottino has already been told to canonize this shrimpy little rookie for sainthood – a symptom of Attanasio trying to influence fans to embrace a SS/3B combo who may be lucky to drive in 90 runs between them, instead of investing in a real SS/3B, not 2 utility infielders.
Adames was the heart and soul of the team and impossible to replace (at least immediately) in the clubhouse/dugout. And obviously he was good on the field as well. But he wasn’t a superstar and is off to a terrible start with the Giants this year. He was overpaid at $187million. Attanasio can and should spend more money on player payroll, but signing Adames at that price wasn’t going to happen and I’m glad it didn’t for the sake of the long-term outlook. Honestly, I would have loved if Attanasio ponied up for Alex Bregman. He would have been the perfect fit for this team.
Spot on regarding Rottino! Everyone have “gamer, scrapper, mentally tough, Brewer culture,” etc.on their bingo card? When Frelick is batting 5th in the lineup. There are issues. Most of us know what those descriptions are “code” for. Wish I had a buck for every time those words have been spoken during the telecasts.
Unfortunately, it’s swallowed hook, line, and sinker by a majority of Brewer fans.
He’s at zero OAA and only a 67% success rate?