Caleb Durbin, Alex Bregman's Last Nine Games Making Red Sox Look Smart

Caleb Durbin, Alex Bregman’s Last Nine Games Making Red Sox Look Smart originally appeared on NESN.
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The Boston Red Sox let Alex Bregman walk in free agency and then opted to trade for Caleb Durbin to fill the void at third base.

The season started terribly for Durbin, and he was arguably the worst hitter in baseball. However, after some private hitting coaching, he has turned things around. Still, it was always going to be tough for him to prove he was a better option than Bregman.

However, Bregman has also struggled this season. While Durbin has looked great in his last nine games, Bregman has looked terrible, and it’s perhaps the first time since the offseason when the Red Sox look like they made the right decision at third base. Durbin is slashing .314/.306/.504 in his last nine games and six of his 11 hits have gone for extra bases.

Bregman is hitting just .139 in that span and has seven strikeouts. While Bregman had been struggling all season, he was still playing better than Durbin. Even though he was not living up to the contract he got from the Chicago Cubs, it was looking like a mistake for the Red Sox to let him walk.

Now, with Durbin playing better, it looks like the Red Sox may have been on to something. Durbin was a National League Rookie of the Year contender last season. If he can be that version of himself, he is an above-average third baseman for a fraction of the cost of what Bregman would be.

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