MILWAUKEE — No matter the results of National League Rookie of the Year Award balloting on Monday night, Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin considered 2025 a win.
“There’s a sense of confidence,” Durbin said during a phone conversation last week. “It’s like, I know I can do it.”
The 25-year-old infielder did it well enough to be named a finalist for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s top rookie honor in the NL, alongside catcher Drake Baldwin of the Braves and right-hander Cade Horton of the Cubs.
Durbin found out he’d made the top three when MLB tagged him in a post on Instagram, and it was an honor he didn’t see coming. In fact, Durbin says, he wasn’t sure at season’s end whether he was the best rookie on his own team, which also featured converted infielder Isaac Collins having a huge summer in left field, right-hander Chad Patrick quietly putting up the best FanGraphs WAR of any rookie pitcher on the NL side, and right-hander Jacob Misiorowski making the NL All-Star team before a second-half fade.
Unlike Collins and Patrick, Durbin didn’t even make Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster. Instead, the club went with Oliver Dunn and Vinny Capra at third base and waited until April 18 to summon Durbin from Triple-A Nashville for what longtime Brewers righty Freddy Peralta called the most exciting Major League debut he’s witnessed.
Durbin delivered two hits in a victory over the A’s that night and went on to stabilize third base, hitting .256/.334/.387 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs. He ranked among the NL’s rookie leaders in stolen bases (first, 18), runs (second, 60), hits (third, 114), doubles (third, 25), home runs (fourth, 11), total bases (fourth, 172), RBIs (tied-fourth, 53) and extra-base hits (fifth, 36), and led the entire NL in hit-by-pitches with 24, one shy of the franchise record.
Whether or not he joined past Brewers players to win Rookie of the Year honors — Pat Listach (1992), Ryan Braun (2007) and Devin Williams (2020) — Durbin believes his performance will be a springboard into 2026.
“Going into your first season,” he said, “there’s very much a sense of, ‘I don’t know what to expect, but I’m ready for anything.’ Going into next year, it helps, because I’ve learned from experience and I can adjust accordingly. I know what I need to get better at. I know what I need to do on a day to day basis to get ready. In the beginning, you feel like a fish out of water. Now you trust yourself because you’ve been through it.”
Along the way Durbin proved he could hold down third base for a team that prides itself on defense. That was the biggest question that scouts were asking after the Brewers, who were set at the middle infield positions with Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz, acquired Durbin and left-hander Nestor Cortes in the December 2024 trade that sent All-Star closer Devin WIlliams to the Yankees.
So, Durbin spent Spring Training focused on defense at the hot corner.
“I knew I needed to get good quick,” he said. “If I was going to play, that’s where I was going to play, because the middle infield was stacked with Brice and Joey. Those are two of the best defenders in the game. So if I was going to have a chance to help the team, third base was going to be the spot it would be. In my mind, I wanted to attack that with everything I had.”
Durbin is looking forward to attacking next season with a healthy throwing arm. He dealt with discomfort in his right elbow down the stretch from a bone spur that required arthroscopic surgery on Oct. 30. One week later, he already had multiple rounds of physical therapy under his belt, and his stitches came out Friday. He was planning to resume lower body workouts this week and expects not to be delayed in his preparation for 2026.
“It was one of those things that affected me more in practice than in the game,” Durbin said. “By the time the game came around, I was loose and ready to go, and when the ball is hit to you in the game, your mind is like, ‘Just make the play.’ So you’re not worried about it. In practice is where you feel it a little bit more.
“It just nagged along, and by the end of the year we really had to stay on top of it. Maybe that arm felt a little weaker. You had to save your bullets.”
Chalk it up as a learning experience during the longest year of Durbin’s baseball life. He’s spent the past weeks looking back on it.
“We all felt like it ended too quick, but when you put the whole season in perspective, you’re definitely proud of everything,” he said. “A lot of teams don’t even make the postseason. But you kind of fight that with the feeling, of, ‘Man, we had a couple more weeks in us.’ …
“To play up to my potential, get that really good experience, it’s something I’m going to be able to learn from moving forward.”
