Yankees fans of a certain generation are always seeking gritty, underrated grinders who do all the little things well to help teams get back to their winning ways. Would you believe there was one of those guys atop the Yankees' depth chart all offseason, and those same fans somehow managed to whine about it instead of embrace it?
It's too late now. Caleb Durbin is in Milwaukee, not the Bronx. He's performing his regular brand of winning mischief for the Brewers, translating the home run progress he made in the Yankees' system to someone else's style of baseball. And, after some of the least-self-aware fans on earth sobbed and gulped all Winter Meetings long about how plugging Durbin into the infield was a sign that the Yankees' Evil Empire days were dead and buried, he's making New Yorkers swiftly realize what they're now missing.
Devin Williams' struggles haven't exactly made the dichotomy look peachy, either, given the two were traded for one another.
Williams still has time to recover, though he only has a year before the Yankees must decide whether extending a closer is worth it, within the constraints of their budget. So far, the jury remains out. Durbin? He's under team control for the next six seasons, and he's started his big-league tenure off by displaying surprising pop (though not surprising if you've been watching all along), sterling defense at third, and creative tenacity.
Yankees fans who believed in Caleb Durbin don't look so foolish now after Brewers debut
To be very fair to the Yankees, they've gotten more than they expected out of Oswaldo Cabrera to start the season at third base, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. has transitioned nicely back to second. To be very unfair to the Yankees, they traded Caleb Durbin for one year of a closer.
Durbin's MLB story has yet to be written. He isn't a Hall of Famer, or a multi-year All-Star, or even a .300 hitter in a moderate sample size. But the audacity fans had this offseason to claim there was no way he could be relied upon, and the Yankees wouldn't be the Yankees unless they figured out a way to glom Nolan Arenado's money to their payroll or force the Rays to surrender Brandon Lowe was patently ridiculous. Fans want it both ways. They want homegrown talent. Then, when that homegrown talent is ready, they want to cry about how ridiculous it is to rely on unproven players. Spend, spend, spend.
Sometimes, teams like the Yankees do that type of spending below the surface on their player development. They used their money to work with Durbin's natural talent and turn him into a perfect, under-appreciated prototype. They then determined that deploying him in exchange for Williams would've been best for them in both the short- and long-term. Perhaps they're eventually proven correct.
But their infield lacks quality depth, and their bullpen doesn't. Durbin's short time in Milwaukee has already made the sentiment around his offseason role, and the Yankees' defense of his skills at the Winter Meetings, look all the more ridiculous.
