Red Sox Finally Address Infield, Swap Kyle Harrison & More for Caleb Durbin

[Brandon Glick]

Well, that Rafael Devers trade tree continues to expand. At long last, the Boston Red Sox have addressed their glaring need in the infield, adding Caleb Durbin in an out-of-nowhere trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.

The full return — Kyle Harrison, David Hamilton, and Shane Drohan — continues to deplete the Red Sox's pitching depth, which has been a key part of their offseason strategy. Expect Payton Tolle and Connelly Early to serve as the next-men-up in case of an injury to the major-league rotation.

As for Durbin, the 25-year-old infielder primarily played third base for the Brewers in his rookie campaign, but he's a capable middle infielder and will almost certainly slide over to second upon arriving in Boston. He hit .256/.334/.387 (105 wRC+) with 11 home runs and 18 steals last season. He is a strong defender who is extremely versatile, which is a very Brewers profile. It will be interesting to see how he's deployed by Alex Cora, considering all of the infield depth the Red Sox have.

Oh but wait — there's more!

Andruw Monasterio is yet another versatile infielder on the 40-man roster being added to the team's coffers. He played at least eight games at each infield position last year and is well-reviewed by all of his teammates and coaches. More than likely, he'll be optioned to Triple-A Worcester considering that Durbin, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Romy Gonzalez, and possibly one of Nate Eaton or Nick Sogard will be on the Opening Day roster, but he just further adds to the versatility the Red Sox have been working on building up.

Which is also the case for Anthony Seigler, who is more of a true third baseman (though he does have ample catching experience in the minors). Neither player is revered for their hitting prowess, but the 26-year-old Seigler has crushed minor-league pitching in the past and offers a left-handed bat to the bench mix.

This is a lot of team control for the Red Sox to be adding (plus a top-100 draft pick) in exchange for Harrison, Hamilton, and Drohan. Hamilton become exceptionally superfluous on this roster once Kiner-Falefa signed, and both Harrison and Drohan were buried on the depth chart behind Patrick Sandoval, Kutter Crawford, Payton Tolle, and Connelly Early. At the risk of appearing like one of many common fools when their team trades with the Brewers (or Tampa Bay Rays): this appears to be a total fleece job by the Red Sox.

Of course, the Brewers are absolutely planning something else. They didn't just trade their entire third base depth chart for pennies on the dollar without some sort of idea of how to upgrade at that spot. But that doesn't affect what Boston got or gave up in this deal. Considering how few options there were to address the need at second base, it's hard to imagine how the front office could have done better.

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