Red Sox's Caleb Durbin Has Nomar Garciaparra Message After Jersey Change

It's long been a story for a certain subsect of Boston Red Sox fans that Nomar Garciaparra's jersey number keeps getting handed out.

Since Rocco Baldelli first took No. 5 in 2009, there have been 10 Red Sox to wear Garciaparra's old jersey number, including the likes of Allen Craig, Tzu-Wei Lin, and Vaughn Grissom. Perhaps at least now, Red Sox fans will feel as if the number is back in reliable hands.

New Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin made the switch to No. 5 just before opening day, and it became available only because the team released Brendan Rodgers, who was wearing the digit during spring training.

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What Durbin said about taking Garciaparra's number

Caleb Durbin of the Boston Red Sox throws an out during spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. I | Andrew West/The News-Press & Naples Daily News/USA Today Network / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn

When asked before his Red Sox regular-season debut about the jersey number swap, Durbin paid homage to Garciaparra while not making the issue out to be something bigger than it was -- after all, he's hardly the first one to snag the six-time All-Star's old look.

“Some guys were like, oh, you want to wear Nomar (Garciaparra’s) number?” Durbin said, per Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. “I’m like, I’ll wear Nomar’s number. He’s a legend. Just wearing the Red Sox jersey is an honor in itself.”

Durbin went 0-for-3 with a walk and an error at third base in his Red Sox debut, so it's safe to say he's got some catching up to do if he wants to make No. 5 "his" number in the annals of Boston history.

And it's probably past time for fans to be rubbed the wrong way by the franchise's decision to snub Garciaparra for a jersey number retirement. He was the team's best position player in the late 1990s and early 2000s, no doubt, but things clearly ended on a sour note after the front office traded him to the Chicago Cubs in what turned out to be the first World Series season since 1918.

Durbin was four when Garciaparra got traded, so there's never going to be a good reason to hold it against him that he dons the five on his back.