After Quinn Priester took our No. 7 spot on Friday, a new newcomer sits at No. 8 in our MVBrewers rankings. Rookie Caleb Durbin claims that spot, as he received 11 votes from the BCB community, beating out Abner Uribe’s five votes and two votes each for Chad Patrick and Andrew Vaughn.
Durbin, who turns 26 in February, was an undersized infielder who was drafted by the Braves in 2021 out of Washington University in St. Louis and went in the 14th round. He was traded to the Yankees during the 2022-23 offseason before breaking into 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 and missed part of the season due to injury before being traded to the Padres, Durbin proved himself to be a steal when Williams struggled in New York.
The platoon of Oliver Dunn and Vinny Capra struggled to shore up third base at the start of 2025, and Durbin was soon called up from Triple-A Nashville for his MLB debut. In 136 games, he hit .256/.334/.387 with 11 home runs, 53 RBIs, 60 runs and 18 steals, accumulating 2.8 bWAR and 2.6 fWAR while playing solid defense at third base.
In a player profile similar to Sal Frelick, Durbin’s plate approach focuses more on contact than power. According to Statistics from Baseball SavantDurbin ranked in the 95th percentile or better in squared percentage (33.3%), whiff percentage (13.0%) and strikeout percentage (9.9%), even while ranking in the bottom 10% in average exit velocity (85.2 mph), hard-hit percentage (26.9%), launch angle sweet-spot rate (29.6%) and bat speed (67.9 mph).
His fielding data was around league average, and he (unsurprisingly) provided positive value on the basepaths with a sprint speed of 45.1 mph.
Another thing Durbin did right? Get hit by pitches. Despite only 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 percentage ranks 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 very 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 win.
Durbin was also solid in the postseason, as he, along with Jackson Chourio, provided what little life Milwaukee’s offense showed during their sweep of the Dodgers in the NLCS. In 33 at-bats, he hit .276/.364/.414 with two doubles, a triple, two RBIs, three runs and three steals.
The future looks bright in Milwaukee.
We continue this ranking on Friday with our number 9 player. Visit The Feed to weigh in on the vote.
- Freeddy Peralta (5.5 bWA, 3.6 FILL)
- The Trange Brice (5.6 bWA, 4.4 FILL)
- William games (3.9 bWAR, 3.6 fWAR)
- Frellock’s Room (3.0 bWA, 3,666)
- Christian Jelich (3.1 bWA, 2.4 FILL)
- Jackson Chouri (2.2 BEER, 2.9 VOL)
- Request prayer (2.9 bWA, 1.9 FILL)
- Durbin’s Caleb (2.8 bWA, 2.6 FILL)
#MVBrewers #Caleb #Durbin