After Quinn Priester took our No. 7 spot on Friday, another newcomer slots in at No. 8 in our MVBrewers rankings. Rookie Caleb Durbin claims that spot, as he picked up 11 votes from the BCB community, beating out Abner Uribe’s five votes and two votes apiece for Chad Patrick and Andrew Vaughn.
Durbin, who turns 26 in February, was an undersized infielder drafted out of Washington University in St. Louis by the Braves in 2021, going in the 14th round. He was traded to the Yankees during the 2022-23 offseason before breaking out in the Arizona Fall League last fall. After an AFL-record 29 steals in just 24 games, Durbin was sent to Milwaukee alongside Nestor Cortes in exchange for closer Devin Williams.
While Cortes never caught on with Milwaukee, missing a chunk of the season due to injury before being traded to the Padres, Durbin proved that he was a steal as Williams struggled in New York.
The platoon of Oliver Dunn and Vinny Capra struggled to shore up third base to begin 2025, and Durbin quickly found himself called up from Triple-A Nashville for his MLB debut. Across 136 games, he hit .256/.334/.387 with 11 homers, 53 RBIs, 60 runs, and 18 steals, accumulating 2.8 bWAR and 2.6 fWAR while playing solid defense at third base.
In a similar player profile to Sal Frelick, Durbin’s plate approach focuses more on contact than power. According to Baseball Savant’s metrics, Durbin ranked in the 95th percentile or better in squared-up rate (33.3%), whiff rate (13.0%), and strikeout rate (9.9%), even as he ranked in the bottom 10% in average exit velocity (85.2 mph), hard-hit rate (26.9%), launch angle sweet-spot rate (29.6%), and bat speed (67.9 mph).
His fielding metrics ranked right around league average, and he (unsurprisingly) provided positive value on the basepaths with a 28.1 mph sprint speed.
Another thing Durbin did well? Get hit by pitches. Despite just 506 plate appearances, Durbin finished second in the majors with 24 HBPs, just three behind Randy Arozarena, who had 27 HBPs in 709 plate appearances. Durbin’s HBP rate ranked 16th in the majors, but if you limit that list to players with at least 100 plate appearances, he ranks fourth, behind only Luke Raley (219 PAs), Gary Sánchez (101 PAs), and Chris Taylor (125 PAs). In other words, he’s really good at taking one for the team.
The signature moment of Durbin’s season came on June 7, when Durbin hit a walk-off homer against the Padres on the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth inning, sending it into Milwaukee’s bullpen in left-center for a 4-3 victory.
Durbin was also solid in the postseason, as, along with Jackson Chourio, he provided what little life Milwaukee’s offense showed during their sweep at the hands of the Dodgers in the NLCS. Across 33 plate appearances, he batted .276/.364/.414 with two doubles, a triple, two RBIs, three runs, and three steals.
The future looks bright in Milwaukee.
We’ll continue these rankings on Friday with our No. 9 player. To weigh in on the voting, visit The Feed.
