Red Sox acquire Caleb Durbin in trade with Brewers to address their infield

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Third baseman Caleb Durbin was traded to the Boston Red Sox in a six-player deal with the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday after finishing third in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting last year.

Milwaukee acquired left-handers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton from Boston for Durbin and infielders Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler. The Red Sox also are receiving a competitive balance round B pick in July's amateur draft, about 67th overall.

Durbin, who turns 26 on Feb. 22, could fill Boston’s opening at third base created when Alex Bregman left as a free agent to sign a $175 million, five-year contract with the Chicago Cubs.

The Red Sox acquired Willson Contreras to play first base, and Durbin can play second or third. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said the team hadn’t decided where Durbin would play but said he expects him to be a regular starter.

“We’re just excited about getting a really good player into the organization, and we’ll figure out where he fits best,” Breslow said. “It just doesn’t feel like it makes sense to commit to anything right now.”

The 5-foot-7 Durbin batted .256 with a .334 on-base percentage, 11 homers and 18 steals in 136 games while helping the Brewers win a third straight NL Central title and reach the NL Championship Series last season.

Milwaukee acquired Durbin and left-hander Nestor Cortes from the New York Yankees for closer Devin Williams.

The Brewers had the third- and fourth-place finishers in the voting for the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year award that went to Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin, but neither player remains with the organization. Outfielder Isaac Collins, who finished fourth in the balloting, went to Kansas City along with pitcher Nick Mears in a December trade that brought left-handed pitcher Angel Zerpa to Milwaukee.

Durbin’s exit from Milwaukee leaves the Brewers with an apparent opening at third. Joey Ortiz was the Brewers’ starting third baseman in 2024 but shifted to shortstop last season. Hamilton, among the players coming over from Boston, played one game at third base last year but primarily has worked at second base and shortstop.

Jett Williams, one of the players Milwaukee acquired in a Jan. 22 trade that sent two-time All-Star pitcher Freddy Peralta to the New York Mets, also will get some reps at third base this spring training. Williams has played second base, shortstop and the outfield in the Mets organization.

Sal Frelick worked out at third base in spring training in 2024 but won a Gold Glove in right field that year and has remained in the outfield ever since.

Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said the abundance of infield prospects in Milwaukee's talent-laden farm system made the team feel good enough about their long-term future to make this deal.

“You also start looking at the future here with Jesus Made, Cooper Pratt and Luke Adams, Luis Peña and Andrew Fischer, there are just a lot of these types of guys coming we feel like in our system who could absolutely handle the left side of the diamond that have really high upsides,” Arnold said. “We feel like we have the ingredients now to weather the loss of somebody like Caleb Durbin, who obviously meant a lot to our franchise. But we feel really good about the infield depth both now and in the future as well.”

Monasterio, a 28-year-old with experience at every infield position, hit .270 with a .319 on-base percentage, four homers and 16 RBIs in 68 games for Milwaukee last season. Seigler, 26, batted .194 with a .292 on-base percentage, no homers and five RBIs in 34 games.

Harrison, 24, was a combined 1-1 with a 4.56 ERA in eight appearances for the Red Sox and San Francisco last year. He came to Boston as part of the 2025 trade that sent Rafael Devers to San Francisco.

Drohan, 27, has never pitched in the majors. He went 5-2 with a 3.17 ERA and 77 strikeouts over 54 innings in 15 combined appearances with Triple-A Worcester and High-A Greenville last season.

“Harrison’s not that far removed from being one of the best pitching prospects in the sport,” Arnold said. “Drohan had an outstanding year last year in Triple-A. Both those guys are really exciting for us to add.”

Hamilton, 28, hit .198 with a .257 on-base percentage, six homers, 19 RBIs and 22 steals for Boston last year. That followed a 2024 season in which he batted .248 with a .303 on-base percentage, eight homers, 28 RBIs and 33 steals in 98 games.

Milwaukee selected Hamilton out of Texas in the eighth round of the 2019 draft, then traded him to the Red Sox in 2021.

“Hamilton’s a guy we know very well,” Arnold said. “He’s an elite baserunner. He's really fast. He's a really good defender. He's an exciting player.”

AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Boston Red Sox's David Hamilton during a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco, June 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

FILE - Boston Red Sox pitcher Kyle Harrison delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game, Sept. 20, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, file)

FILE - Milwaukee Brewers' Caleb Durbin celebrates after scoring against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the second inning in Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series, Oct. 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Duke received the top overall seed for March Madness on Sunday, followed by Arizona, Michigan and Florida, each of whom would love a repeat of last season when all four No. 1s made it all the way to the Final Four.

The top line was the most predictable thing to come out of Selection Sunday, with Michigan’s drop of one spot to the overall No. 3 the result of the Wolverines' loss to Purdue moments before the brackets were revealed, according to tournament selection chair Keith Gill.

In the day’s biggest nail-biter, Miami (Ohio) made the field as a No. 11 seed, but just barely. The RedHawks, with a 31-1 record but the 339th-ranked strength of schedule, were one of the last teams in the field and they face a First Four game Wednesday against SMU in Dayton, Ohio, not terribly far from home.

The tournament starts Tuesday with other play-in games, including one pitting bubble teams and No. 11 seeds Texas and North Carolina State. The national champion will be crowned at the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 6.

Among those left out were San Diego State, Indiana, Oklahoma and Auburn.

The Tigers had 16 losses but the third-best strength of schedule. The snub drew predictable blowback from Bruce Pearl, their former coach and father of their current coach, who was working for CBS and said “they played the toughest schedule in the country and I don’t know if they were rewarded for it.”

Even with those snubs, the Southeastern Conference led the way by placing 10 teams in the field of 68, four short of its record from last year.

The Big Ten followed with nine, the ACC and Big 12 with eight apiece -- an unsurprising result in an era of massive conference expansion and NIL compensation drawing top players to the biggest spenders.

The Gators (26-7) are the defending champion, trying to repeat their back-to-back titles from 2006-07. Last season, Florida was part of an all-No. 1 Final Four -- the first time that had happened in 17 seasons.

Gill confusingly said Miami (Ohio) was not the last at-large team in the bracket, even though it was ranked in the 1-68 lineup behind bubble teams North Carolina State, Texas and SMU. Those three teams also rated above Miami in some of the key metrics.

The 31 wins must have meant something.

Gill said the committee looked hard at how injuries would impact teams.

No team suffered more, both on the bracket and the court, than North Carolina, which is a No. 6 seed after losing Caleb Wilson to a broken right thumb. JT Toppin’s season-ending knee injury was also a factor in Texas Tech’s No. 5 seeding.

Asked how the NCAA’s seeding principles played a role in moving teams around in the bracket, Gill pointed to the First Four meeting between NC State and Texas the committee would have liked to avoid because it is a rematch of a game they played in the Maui Invitational in November.

He said nothing about placing No. 2 seed Houston in the South, where it could play the regional final in its hometown — normally something the NCAA shies away from. The game could be against Florida in what would be a rematch of last year’s national championship game.

The committee weighed the Big Ten final in moving Michigan down one notch and moving Purdue from a 3 to a 2 seed, but didn’t seem to pay as much attention to the action in the Big East.

St. John’s beat UConn by 20 in that conference final but remained where most bracketologists had them, at No. 5, and with a cross-country trip this week to San Diego to play Northern Iowa. UConn stayed at No. 2 where it had been predicted all along.

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Kentucky guard Collin Chandler (5) falls onto Florida forward Alex Condon (21) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 13, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Arizona's Jaden Bradley celebrates after making the game-winning shot at the buzzer to defeat Iowa State during an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinal round of the Big 12 Conference tournament Friday, March 13, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)