The Red Sox have told Caleb Durbin he’ll be the primary third baseman, the infielder told reporters (including Tim Healey of The Boston Globe). Things had clearly been trending in that direction throughout camp, though manager Alex Cora held off on making any formal declarations.
Durbin remains at the position where he started 119 games for the Brewers last year. He’d made three starts at second base for Milwaukee. Durbin started a trio of games at the keystone against 10 starts at third base this spring.
The 26-year-old is coming off a third place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He stole 18 bases and connected on 11 homers with a .256/.334/.387 line across 506 plate appearances. The Red Sox acquired him last month in a six-player trade built around Durbin and left-hander Kyle Harrison, who has a good chance to open the season in Milwaukee’s rotation. He has made a strong impression on his new team in camp, batting .394 with five walks and only three strikeouts over 40 plate appearances.
Cora said the Sox prefer to have Durbin playing one position rather than bouncing around the infield. Locking him in at the hot corner leaves second base as the spot up for grabs. Marcelo Mayer has been the favorite throughout the spring. The Red Sox have yet to commit to carrying Mayer on the Opening Day roster after he hit .228/.272/.402 with a 30% strikeout rate in his first 44 MLB games.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Andruw Monasterio (who came over from Milwaukee in the Durbin trade) would be the alternatives if the Sox want Mayer to open the season in Triple-A. Kiner-Falefa and Monasterio fit best as utility players. They’re each right-handed hitters and could take short side platoon bats if the Sox want to keep the lefty-hitting Mayer away from tough southpaws.
Romy Gonzalez could be back in that role midseason, but he’ll miss at least the first two months. Gonzalez underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder last week. The Sox placed him on the 60-day injured list when they finalized their $1MM free agent deal with lefty reliever Danny Coulombe.
Coulombe had been a Sox target dating back to the Winter Meetings. The team wanted a more established player than Jovani Moran to serve as their top lefty bullpen arm in front of closer Aroldis Chapman. They ultimately added Coulombe for a guarantee marginally above the $780K league minimum, though his deal was initially going to be a little pricier.
Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the Red Sox had agreed to terms with Coulombe at a higher number before flagging something in the medical review process. Jen McCaffrey and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic added specifics, reporting that it would have been a $2.25MM base salary with $750K available in appearance-based incentives.
Coulombe’s actual deal comes with the same appearance incentive package. It also includes up to $1.25MM in roster bonuses, as first reported by The Associated Press. He’d earn $250K apiece at 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 days on the active roster or MLB injured list — so long as any IL stint isn’t related to his pitching arm.
In each case, the maximum value of the contract would be $3MM. If Coulombe stays healthy and holds his roster spot all year, he’ll come out just as well as he would have if not for the health concern. It’s not clear what specifically the medical staff flagged, though it’s evidently related to his arm in some form. In 2024, Coulombe underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow. He missed time in May and June last year with a forearm strain and had a minimal IL stay in September due to shoulder fatigue.
I’m excited for Durbin, I tried to buy him in Sorare’s early access but he’s more popular than I’m willing to pay haha
Durbin certainly “looks” more like a 2B than a 3B but I love his hustle. Mayer certainly “looks” more like a 3B than a 2B but he’s smooth as silk in the field. Bummer Romy got hurt because a Mayer/Romy platoon is ideal. And that’s all I have to say about that. 📦 🍫 🌳 🍤
The issue is the Sox do not want to move Durbin around. I too would prefer him at second but a) Mayer has not earned a full time job and) it’s Eaton who I’m hearing is likely the back up infielder after IKF (until Romy is back) and he’s not a second baseman.
lol yeah man thanks, I read the article too. For the record I didn’t say I preferred either of them at 2B/3B, respectively. I said they “looked” like they belong at the opposite bases that they are going to be playing. Traditionally 2B are short and scrappy compared to their 3B counterparts… 3B traditionally being taller, stronger, “smoother”, having stronger arms etc. Durbin vs Mayer is exactly that to a T.
That being said, I’ve seen Durbin play 3B and I dig it. Plays hard. Makes plays. He’s got a dirt dog feel to him. Pedroia’esque, if you will.
Yes we all know “Mayer hasn’t earned it”. My prediction is Mayer is sent down and comes back up shortly before Romy is healed up. And the two of them phase out and take over for IKF/Montaserio.
Interesting comments regarding the physical stature of the typical 3B considering the guy Durbin is replacing isn’t particularly large in stature either.
I mean that’s true that Bregman isn’t huge but he’s got 5” on Durbin lol. 5’11 vs 5’6
@Dewey
Eaton is not in the running to be the backup infielder. He hasn’t played any infield in spring training or the WBC and Cora has stated that it’s because they see him as an outfielder. Aside from emergency situations, we shouldn’t expect to see him there this season.
That doesn’t mean he won’t make the team though. Probably between he and Monasterio for the last roster spot.
Box chocolate tree fried shrimp indeed.
its like a message inside a message man… Forrest Gump was the answer
Sean – I don’t think we want a top prospect to be a platoon player. I agree with Breslow on this one, if he’s not good enough to play every day at the major league level then he should play every day in the minors and work on his game. He’s not gonna improve against LHP if he doesn’t face LHP.
FPG
It’s time we find out if Mayer can perform at the major league level. A high level. Make him your primary 2ndbaseman give him every opportunity to excel. No platoon ,we need answers. No moving him around the infield. It’s time he establishes himself as an everyday MLB player. I don’t expect him to be a superstar ,but a solid major leaguer would be fine.
cdc – hi!
“We need answers” ..that is from a movie, isn’t it? Can’t think of which one though. LOL
The bigger question is if he can stay healthy, we can find that out with him in the majors.
I can’t believe tonight isn’t televised! The whole purpose of scheduled night games is to televise, so what happened? I want my Bello TV!!!
We might not want that but if Mayer goes down to AAA (like he should imo) and earns a call up around the time Romy gets back I’m less concerned with his development and more interested in winning games. Romy absolutely mashes LHP and Mayer can get plenty of ABs against righty’s in the big league. We could use his defense and he can continue development in a platoon just fine. Again that’s dependent on him earning the call up.
SP
Who is going to play everyday 2nd?
Guessing it’s IKF to start the year. The kid isn’t ready according to our manager and the elite platoon guy is injured. The other guys we picked up are totally unproven. All I was saying about the size of Durbin was that he LOOKS like the guy that should be at 2B. And that still leaves 3B open since Cora dosnt believe Mayer is ready and Bregman walked. 🤷🏻♂️
Sean: manager hasn’t said he isn’t ready. He’s just not going to hand him the job outright. At this point, Mayer needs to get ABs against actual big league pitching including lefties.
And the answer is… Marcelo! I’m stoked
Tyler Durbin’s brother knows how to fight in the batters box
Who is Tyler Durbin?
The temu fight club member we don’t talk about.
Durbin being former Yankees minor leaguer is interesting. Red Sox would’ve seen him play against their minor league clubs before he was dealt to Milwaukee.
I don’t believe he played much third in the minors. This is all about how he looked last year and Boston’s decision not to give Mayer a full time position.
Durbin split time between mostly between 2B and 3B with some SS sprinkled in. Both his OAA and DRS are 0 so that puts him exactly at league average defense. His value is in his bat. Also his BABIP last year was .265 which is low for a speedy player. I expect him to hit better in ’26.
Thanks Yankee. You would no. When he was traded to Milwaukee, I recall he was listed as a second baseman.
Brewers fan here. I hope he does well in Boston. He has talent, desire, and he is an intelligent young man. I wonder how many players in MLB history have come from Lake Forest, Illinois. For us old folks, that is where the movie Ordinary People was filmed.
Recently retired Outfielder Michael Taylor is the only other MLB player born in Lake Forest Illinois
And Alan Benes went to Lake Forest H.S. (1990).
I’m confused. Is it a lake or a forest?
Red Sox aiming for the uninspiring, but consistent all 2.5-3Bwar from every infield position. The overall infield D should be much better so hopefully making the pitching staff look a bit better then it already is.
I can see this team winning a lot of 3-1, 4-2 games.
As Al Davis famously said “just win baby”.
As a Raiders fan, poor Al is turning in his grave.
Meyer should be the opening day SS…. Story should be at 2B. If this team cares about Defense like they say they do, then this makes them the optimal defensive line up.
Come on Cooper. It’s not like Trevor Story’s defense ranked at the bottom for shortstops in 2025, grouped with guys like CJ Abrams, Bo Bichette, JP Crawford and somehow worse than Volpe.
Tin foil hat time: SS and 3B make more in arbitration than 2B so it’s better for the Red Sox financials to have Mayer at 2B. God I hate that I have to think about this team this way now. Embarrassing.
No. The problem is that there is a chance that Mayer becomes a fulltime platoon this year. His partner would be Romy (when available) and Monasterio. Since neither play SS, then Mayer has to go to 2B.
Romy’s second most played position is SS…. so that’s not it.
And if there’s a chance that Mayer becomes a full-time platoon player, they’re better off putting him in AAA and having him get consistent ABs against both RHP and LHP. No reason to platoon him at this point, he’s 23 years old.
THe 2018 team won 2/3 of their games with Nunez at second and ZERO offense from behind the plate. And Moreland at first and Devers at third were just about average. But they had Betts and JD. I think Anthony might match one of those two guys but they could use a second guy to have a great year. Or they need a bunch of guys to have well above average seasons. I think that’s more likely. Let’s see what happens.
Durbin will end up my favorite player
The word is that Trevor Story will begin the season as the #2 hitter, but considering his OBP was barely above .300 last season, I think it makes more sense to bat Durbin second and Story in the middle of the order. The opening day lineup should be something like this :
Roman Anthony
Caleb Durbin
Jarren Duran
Willson Contreras
Trevor Story
Wilyer Abreu
Ceddanne Rafaela
Marcelo Mayer
Carlos Narvaez
Yep, something like that,
HB – agreed. Durbin would would be better in the 2 hole, and Abreu in the # 5