Caleb Durbin spent last year as a meaningful piece of the Brewers’ rise. Now Milwaukee is headed to the World Series, and he’s watching from the other side after a February trade sent him to the Boston Red Sox.
The Brewers’ run to the Fall Classic has been emphatic. They rolled past the Los Angeles Dodgers in a four-game sweep on Thursday night, sealing a franchise-record 103-win season and punching their ticket to their first World Series in 42 years. Durbin, meanwhile, was already out of the picture, with Boston knocked out by the New York Yankees in the Wild Card Series before October really got going.
That makes Durbin an obvious figure of interest for both fan bases, and Alex Speier of The Boston Globe reported on Saturday that Durbin addressed Milwaukee’s postseason march. Durbin said it was "a little bit bittersweet. It’d be more bitter if I wasn’t super happy with where I was (with the Red Sox)."
Milwaukee has filled third base without him by leaning on a late-season platoon that includes former Red Sox bench player David Hamilton and Joey Ortiz. Hamilton even came through in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, delivering an RBI single and a home run that helped turn a 6-4 win into a more comfortable finish.
Still, Durbin’s individual season stood out. He was better at third than anything the Brewers had there, finishing with 4.4 bWAR and earning a spot as a finalist for the Gold Glove Award in the American League. The numbers suggest he should win it.
And while Durbin has made clear he’s content with his new home, there’s still a strange edge to the story. His career has been an underdog journey from the start, dating back to when the fourth-round pick out of Division III Washington University in St.
Louis first got into the pro game. Watching that kind of team go on without him has to sting just a little, even if he’s happy where he ended up.
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