Red Sox's Caleb Durbin Stealing the Show With Electric Spring

The early returns have been very good for the young Boston Red Sox infielder.

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

The Boston Red Sox were linked to a handful of infielders for months before landing on Caleb Durbin formerly of the Milwaukee Brewers.

If you followed along with the Red Sox after the organization lost Alex Bregman to the Chicago Cubs, you likely heard a lot about guys like Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw, Ketel Marte, Isaac Paredes and Brendan Donovan. But Boston zigged when the baseball world thought it would zag. The noise was loud — and consistent — about the other trade candidates out there. But that's not who the Red Sox ended up getting.

Boston came out of nowhere and landed Durbin in a deal centered around young starting pitcher Kyle Harrison. So far, the early returns have been great.

Durbin has played in five games so far this spring and has been electric. The young infielder is slashing .417/.500/.583 with five RBIs, two doubles and two walks. It's a small sample size, but a 1.083 OPS is nothing to sneeze at.

5 RBI in 5 games for Caleb Durbin.
pic.twitter.com/lziP2WjgQg

— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) March 1, 2026

It's early to call a deal a "steal" or anything of that nature, but the early returns are right where you'd hope they would be. Durbin can play a solid third base and second base and has a right-handed bat that can help this club out in a big way. Durbin is also just 26 years old and is under team control through the 2031 season. If things pan out, this could end up being a deal that is a steal for the club in the long run.

We can't quite get ahead of ourselves yet seeing how Durbin hasn't even played a regular season game yet for Boston, but he has looked good so far in camp. Spring Training stats do not matter in the long run in part because of the small sample sizes, but if he can look anything like he does right now in the regular season for Boston, that's going to go a long way as the club tries to replace Bregman. Plus, the club doesn't have to worry about an opt-out decision hanging over their head all season as well. That's certainly a plus.