The Boston Red Sox are riding a 14-game winning streak and sitting pretty as one of baseball’s hottest teams right now. They’ll try to tie their franchise record tonight against the Orioles.
But here’s the thing – nobody saw this coming after the first half of the season.
Boston looked like they had maybe two guys who could hit, while everyone else was sleepwalking through at-bats. One of those struggling players was Caleb Durbin, who was supposed to fill the massive hole left by Alex Bregman’s departure.
It wasn’t going well. At all.
The Struggle Was Real
Through his first 48 games in a Red Sox uniform, Durbin was arguably the worst hitter on the roster. We’re talking about a brutal .163/.241/.238 slash line with a 32 wRC+. He had exactly one home run, and it came off a position player.
That’s not exactly what you want from your Bregman replacement.
Durbin was looking like a major miscalculation by the front office. The kind of signing that gets GMs fired and fans calling talk radio shows.
Then something changed.
The Turnaround
On his days off, Durbin started working with an external hitting camp. He began training with Gradium Gswing, and whatever they worked on together has been nothing short of remarkable.
In the 44 games since he started that program, Durbin’s been a completely different hitter. He’s slashing .304/.353/.551 with a 144 wRC+ and nine home runs.
Let’s put that in perspective – he went from one of the worst hitters in baseball to posting elite offensive numbers. That’s not just improvement, that’s transformation.
The Numbers Tell the Story
His season line now sits at .236/.299/.400, which still doesn’t look impressive on paper. But when you consider where he started, it’s actually incredible what he’s accomplished in less than two months.
If Durbin maintains this pace through the rest of the season, he could finish around .250 with a .750 OPS. Compare that to where he was in early June, and it really does boggle the mind.
The Bregman Comparison
What makes this even better for Boston is how Durbin’s hot streak compares to what they lost. Bregman’s having a solid season, but he’s basically averaging what Durbin’s put up over his full season – including that awful first half.
The financial implications are huge too. Boston has Durbin under team control through 2031, giving them flexibility that a big-money Bregman deal wouldn’t have provided. They could always extend him before he hits free agency if this keeps up.
All things considered, it’s looking like Boston found their long-term answer at third base. And if Durbin continues playing at this level, they might have stumbled into something special.
The Red Sox went from looking like they made a costly mistake to potentially having their third baseman of the future. That’s the kind of mid-season turnaround that can change everything for a franchise.
