{"id":531704,"date":"2026-03-10T19:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531704\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:50:11","slug":"red-sox-feel-very-comfortable-with-caleb-durbin-at-third","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531704\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox ‘feel very comfortable’ with Caleb Durbin at third"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Red Sox<\/a> manager Alex Cora hasn’t yet fully committed to Caleb Durbin<\/a> as his every-day third baseman, but he’s warming up to the idea as the offseason trade acquisition gets more reps there during spring training.<\/p>\n

“We’ll probably decide that next week, but I feel very comfortable with him at third base,” Cora told reporters Tuesday at their spring training camp in Fort Myers, Florida.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox, who have a vacancy at the position after free agent Alex Bregman<\/a> signed with the Chicago Cubs<\/a>, acquired the right-handed-hitting Durbin from the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> in a six-player trade<\/a> just one day before camp opened in February.<\/p>\n

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Durbin, 25, finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting last year after winning Milwaukee’s third-base job in the wake of a trade from the New York Yankees<\/a>, who had sent him to the Brewers in the Devin Williams<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n

This spring, Durbin has shared time with Marcelo Mayer<\/a> at both third base and second base, but Durbin has gotten the majority of starts at third of late.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes we make a big deal out of spring training and positions,” Cora told reporters Tuesday. “… I don’t think because you take five ground balls at third base makes you a better third baseman. There’s more than comes into play — metrics, your first step, projections — but I think, at the end of the day, it’s who we feel more comfortable with and which position and also the player.<\/p>\n

“I don’t want Caleb to be moving from second to third during the season. I want him to play one position only and then just go do your thing at the plate.”<\/p>\n

Caleb Durbin, who was acquired via trade with the Brewers in February, is impressing Red Sox manager Alex Cora with his play at third base this spring. “This kid has a great arm and great footwork,” Cora said.\u00a0Maddie Malhotra\/Boston Red Sox\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Durbin, who hit .256 with 11 home runs and 53 RBIs last season, was praised by Cora for his defensive play during Monday’s spring training game against the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen a lot of third basemen with cannons at third base, but their footwork is not great,” Cora said. “This kid has a great arm and great footwork.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora hasn’t yet fully committed to Caleb Durbin as his every-day third baseman,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-531704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}