Brewers manager Pat Murphy publicly said he is not worried about Red Sox infielder Caleb Durbin’s early-season struggles, using a comparison to former Boston star Dustin Pedroia to underline his confidence — and Durbin answered with a pair of hard-hit hits in Boston’s series opener with Milwaukee.
Murphy, who coached Pedroia at Arizona State from 2002-04, was asked Monday about Durbin’s slow start after the former Milwaukee rookie — who spent last season in the Brewers’ clubhouse and finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2025 — had gone hitless through the first portion of the Red Sox schedule. “I don’t worry about that kid. Don’t lose sleep over his lack of numbers so far,” Murphy told reporters. “I knew another kid who played for Boston and started slow, and he’s going to get his number put up there some day.”
Durbin’s 2025 numbers with Milwaukee were strong for a rookie: a .256 batting average, a .721 OPS, 114 hits, 25 doubles, 11 home runs, 60 runs and 53 RBIs in 136 games. He struck out only 50 times, a 9.9 percent rate that ranked in the 98th percentile across MLB. He also arrived in Boston after a productive spring training, hitting .354 with a .946 OPS in 18 Grapefruit League games.
But the regular season began badly. Durbin went 0-for-18 to open the campaign — drawing one walk and striking out five times in five road games — before collecting his first Red Sox hit in the home opener. Entering Monday, he was two hits, two walks and six strikeouts in 30 plate appearances over eight games. Murphy invoked Pedroia’s own early-career April swoon as evidence that slow starts can be overcome; Pedroia hit just .182 with a .544 OPS in April of his 2007 breakout campaign.
Murphy also recalled an anecdote from Pedroia’s wife, Kelli, who once asked him to call her husband during a slump. Murphy said he told Pedroia simply, “Don’t forget, you’re Dustin (expletive) Pedroia.” The comment underscored the veteran coach’s old-school approach to steadying young players — advice he said he sees as applicable to Durbin, whom he knew from Durbin’s time in Milwaukee and whom Durbin has said he idolized as a child.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora, asked separately about comparisons between Durbin and other short-lived analogies — including Pedroia or Astros infielder Alex Bregman — pushed back. “The whole thing of Pedroia, (Alex) Bregman, this or that … no, no, he’s Caleb Durbin,” Cora said. “He’s a good player. He’s a good baseball player.” Hours after the managers’ remarks, Durbin faced his former club for the first time and ripped a 101.2 mph line-drive single through the left side, then followed with a double off the bottom of the Green Monster. He also committed an error in the top of the fourth inning.
In a separate roster move Monday, the Red Sox sent minor-league right-hander Patrick Galle to the St. Louis Cardinals as the player to be named later to complete the offseason trade that brought Sonny Gray to Boston. The transaction finishes a detail left open when the clubs finalized the Gray deal earlier this year.