Caleb Durbin’s first season in Boston was already the kind of year that made people stop and take notice. He gave the Red Sox steady defense at third base, landed among the American League Gold Glove finalists and kept playing through a finger injury serious enough to need surgery after the season.
Now there’s another layer to the story.
Durbin had a second offseason procedure on Thursday, this time on his right foot. According to The Boston Globe, the surgery addressed an older injury involving the fifth metatarsal and a tendon.
That issue never became a major public part of his season, but the Red Sox knew about it. Boston chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told the Globe that the team was aware of the foot injury and that Durbin was determined to keep going. The problem was manageable during the year, but surgery was needed to fix the underlying issue.
Thursday’s operation came after Durbin already had surgery on his left pinkie finger. The Red Sox announced that procedure on Oct. 11 and described it as a reconstruction.
Durbin first hurt the finger in June and then aggravated it in August. Boston waited until he had recovered enough from that surgery before moving forward with the foot procedure.
It makes for a pretty unusual offseason for a player who finished his first year in Boston with a reputation for being tough and reliable. He wasn’t just dealing with one problem. He was working through injuries in both his hand and foot while handling the demands of third base.
His numbers settled at .248 batting average, .332 on-base percentage and .378 slugging percentage. His offense faded later in the season, though it’s hard to know exactly how much the injuries played into that drop.
The bigger story was what he did with the glove.
Durbin earned Gold Glove finalist status at third base in the American League, joining teammates Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu among Boston’s nominees. That’s no small thing at a position that asks for quick reactions, range to both sides, a strong arm and the ability to turn sharply hit balls into outs.
For the Red Sox, the takeaway from Durbin’s debut season goes beyond the stat line. He kept producing while managing more physical wear than most fans realized, and that only deepens the impression he made in his first Boston campaign. The early outlook for his 2027 spring training preparation appears encouraging.
In Other News...
Red Sox Make Another Quiet 40-Man Roster Move
The Red Sox cleared another bit of offseason roster space Sunday, sending infielder Tsung-Che Cheng to the Tigers for cash considerations. It is the kind of move that barely registers outside the front office, but it speaks to how Boston continues to sort through the edges of its 40-man roster while making room for the next wave of decisions.
Cheng spent one season in the organization after arriving in Boston, getting into 13 big league games while also logging time at Triple-A Worcester. His work there included eight home runs and a .241/.345/.390 line, enough to keep him in the mix as a depth infielder even as the Red Sox chose to move on and Detroit took a look at adding him to its own roster picture. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Still Have Tough Roster Calls Coming Before Monday
The calendar is pushing the Red Sox into a familiar kind of late-October housekeeping, with Mondays roster deadline forcing some hard decisions before players can come off the 60-day injured list. Boston still needs to clear seven spots, and the front office has already handled part of the math by moving on from Patrick Sandoval and Isiah Kiner-Falefa and sending Nate Eaton to the Athletics for 18-year-old pitcher Jareth Rayo.
Even after those moves, there is still work to do, and the next round of cuts figures to be more complicated because it will involve players who may have some value, not just empty spots to free up. The Red Sox have a few more roster decisions queued up as they sort through who stays, who goes and who gets squeezed off the 40-man before Mondays deadline arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Roster Squeeze Just Forced Another Early Offseason Cut
The Red Sox have been busy in the early stages of their offseason housekeeping, and the latest roster churn shows just how much work remains before the winter really gets going. Patrick Sandoval and Isiah Kiner-Falefa have already reached free agency, while Boston also sent Nate Eaton to the Athletics in exchange for minor league pitcher Jareth Rayo, giving the front office another arm to monitor as it reshapes the organizational depth chart.
Tsung-Che Cheng was the next piece to move, with Boston dealing the infielder to the Tigers as the club continues trimming the 40-man roster ahead of the deadline. It is the kind of transaction that rarely grabs headlines on its own, but for a team trying to make room and keep its offseason flexibility intact, every spot matters, and the Red Sox are still not done clearing space. [Read more 🡒]