Brewers trade Caleb Durbin, infield depth to Red Sox for pitching

Days before spring training officially begins, the Milwaukee Brewers made a hefty shuffle to their roster, sending third baseman Caleb Durbin as part of a larger package to the Boston Red Sox for left-handed pitchers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan, and infielder David Hamilton.

Milwaukee also is trading a Competitive Balance Round B pick − essentially a supplemental pick after the second round of the draft − and infielders Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler to the Red Sox, leaving their infield depth at a minimum for the time being.

Another move to replace Durbin would seem likely in the short term, although the Brewers have rarely followed convention when assembling their roster.

“The infield depth we have here, on top of Jett Williams and Hamilton, you also have Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz in the mix. We really like the defense here for sure on our infield,” president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said.

Durbin, 25, is coming off a stellar rookie season in which he took third in National League rookie of the year voting, batting .256 with a .721 OPS (on-base, plus slugging) across 136 games. He was projected to be the shoo-in starter at the hot corner for Milwaukee this year.

“But you also start looking at the future here with guys like Jesús Made, Cooper Pratt and Luke Adams, Luis Peña, and Andrew Fischer,” Arnold said. “There’s just a lot of these types of guys coming we feel like in our system that can absolutely handle the left side of the infield of the diamond that heave really high upsides.

“We feel like we have the ingredients now to weather the loss of someone like Caleb Durbin, who obviously meant a lot to our franchise. we feel really good about the infield depth, both now and in the future.”

Harrison, 24, is the headliner of the Brewers’ return, a former top pitching prospect who has a 4.39 earned-run average in 42 career games (37 starts). Formerly of the Giants, Harrison was traded to Boston in the Rafael Devers blockbuster last summer and features a tricky fastball for hitters from a low, left-handed arm slot.

“Harrison, super high pedigree that came over in the Devers trade,” Arnold said. “He’s a huge part of that deal. We’ve had a lot of good reports on him for a long time. At one point he was one of the best pitching prospects in the sport. To be able to access him is exciting. A really good arsenal there with really good stuff.”

Drohan, 27, is a lefty who had a 2.27 ERA across 12 games (11 starts) for Class AAA Worcester last season. His mix is highlighted by a running 94-mph four-seam fastball and slider that both generated whiffs at a high rate for Worcester.

“He’s flown under the radar a little more than Harrison, but this guy dominated in Triple-A last year,” Arnold said. “He was very good. He strikes out a  lot of guys and has really good stuff. Our scouts really, really like this guy. He was a very big part of this for us as well. The combination of adding both those guys who we think could impact our team in ‘26 is really exciting.”

Hamilton returns to the team that drafted him in the eighth round in 2019 before trading him to the Red Sox in the Hunter Renfroe deal prior to the 2022 season.

Hamilton had a career year in 2024, posting a .697 OPS with excellent defense that made him worth 2.6 Wins Above Replacement. He struggled with the bat last year, batting .198 with a .590 OPS in 91 games but once again graded out excellently with the glove. He has been worth 16 defensive runs saved in 109 career games at second base.

With Durbin, Monasterio and Seigler gone, the Brewers’ current 40-man roster non-first base infield options are Hamilton, Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz. Jett Williams, who’s not on the 40-man roster, will also factor into the mix this spring.

In the minors, Milwaukee has Cooper Pratt and Brock Wilken at the Class AAA level, but neither one is big-league ready yet.

This would all seem to suggest a move for an infielder is likely still to come for the Brewers, who hold their first official team workout with pitchers and catchers on Feb. 12. The Brewers, however, are always thinking with an aim on the future, and their deep admiration for the infielders within their farm system already, which could make them less likely to strike a deal that depletes their ranks elsewhere.

“Always open to additions, I would say, first,” Arnold said. “But at the same time I think there are a lot of ingredients here that we’ve talked about. I had a conversation with [manager Pat Murphy] this morning and for a while now, just talking about some of the frameworks that we had talked about. And we’re not married really to any one particular permutation on the infield here.”