By David A. F. Sweet
In his brief career in pro baseball, Lake Forest High School alumnus Caleb Durbin has played for a few little-known minor-league teams, such as the Somerset Patriots and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. But during spring training, he’s hoping to earn a spot with a team a short drive from his Lake Bluff home that is recognized by all: the Milwaukee Brewers. That’s because in November, the New York Yankees traded Durbin to the National League team in a multi-player swap.
Caleb Durbin flourished on the baseball field at Lake Forest High School, but he was also an accomplished wrestler.
“Trades always catch you off guard, so I was definitely surprised, but my family is excited for me to be closer to home,” said the 2018 Lake Forest High School graduate. “A lot of my friends haven’t seen me play since high school. The Brewers general manager (Matt Arnold) and manager (Pat Murphy) both called and welcomed me to the organization. I have talked with a lot of people with the Brewers and have gotten a great feel for the team.”
Though he has yet to play a game in the majors, Durbin’s credentials are strong. In the most recent Arizona Fall League, the then-Yankees prospect set a record with 29 stolen bases, averaging more than one per game; though not blessed with incredible speed, he credits preparation and instincts for his stolen-base savvy. As a shortstop for Division III Washington University, he was named to the World Series All-Tournament Team in 2021. During the regular season that year, he notched a .385 batting average and compiled 47 RBI in only 40 games, which helped prompt the Atlanta Braves to draft him in the 14th round in 2022.
Durbin is hoping to play in the major leagues close to home for the Milwaukee Brewers. Photo courtesy of YD3.
All of this has been accomplished while Durbin stands only 5-foot-6. No doubt major leaguers have found success at similar small sizes (see 5-foot-7 Hall of Famer Joe Morgan or 5-foot-5 Freddie Patek), but the instances are rare. After all, the average height for players is around 6-foot-2, while Yankees star Aaron Judge stands 6-foot-7.
“I’ve always been the shortest guy on every team,” said Durbin, who is also a stout 185 pounds. “I wouldn’t change anything about my height or how I play the game. It’s the way the Brewers play: Scrappy, focused, hardnosed.”
Brewers manager Murphy agrees.
“When we were considering the trade, I know our people understood what kind of guy we got here,” he told MLB.com. “He fits a team that plays the way we’ve played recently, and we’re as excited as heck.”
In fact, Murphy has coached successful players on the smaller side before – he guided 5-foot-9 Dustin Pedroia at Arizona State University, who ended capturing both the American Rookie of the Year award followed by an AL MVP in the majors playing for the Boston Red Sox.
“I want to play like Dustin Pedroia,” Durbin said. “Play the game right and hard. The fact that my new manager coached him fires me up. He was one of my favorites to watch growing up.”
Before he headed to Glendale, Arizona this month, Durbin was asked to share his goals for spring training, aside from the most obvious one of making the team.
“Making sure that I’m staying on top of my nutrition and on top of my supplements,” he said. “It’s easy to get lazy with those, but you need to have a strong routine. Sometimes you want to eat whatever you want as you go through the grind, but it’s important to make the best decisions of what to put you in the body. You want to feel the best you can across 162 games.”
Not surprisingly, Durbin shone as a baseball player at Lake Forest High School; he set Scouts records in hits (121), stolen bases (72), triples (12) and runs (111). But he also lettered four times in wrestling and achieved school records there too. His brother Regis won a state wrestling championship when Durbin was a freshman.
At 5-foot-6, Durbin can still belt a baseball.
“That was one of my favorite sports memories. I wanted to follow in his footsteps,” Durbin said. “It was brutal sport with cutting weight and waking up early. I talk about that discipline throughout baseball training – I know what it takes to push myself.”
Durbin believes playing Division III baseball – where he could also focus on his double major of economics and finance — rather than Division I lifted him to greater heights.
“It was huge,” he said. “There were a lot of things outside of baseball that attracted me to Washington University, such as academics. We were one of the top teams in the country while I was there –every year we were competing for the championship. It gave me everything I could ask for in a college experience.
“Coach Pat Bloom made the program serious. The practices were no minute wasted and intense. In D3, you only get 15 or so practices in the fall. You have to make the most of those, and you have to put in the extra work.”
Durbin has been a strong defensive player throughout the years.
Knowing that a baseball career could end anytime because of injury or performance, Durbin shared what he’d like to do afterward.
“I love baseball and can see myself coaching,” he said. “But there are a lot of different paths I could myself going on. Playing baseball really is on a year-to-year basis. I know it doesn’t last forever.”
Check out more about Division III sports at YD3.org, which is set to launch this spring. YD3.org is a platform and community created to advance the athletic, academic and career goals of ambitious student-athletes.
The Sporting Life columnist David A. F. Sweet can be reached at dafsweet@aol.com.
