3B Caleb Durbin, SS Andrew Monasterio, Util Anthony Seigler and Comp B pick traded to Red Sox for LHP Kyle Harrison, LHP Shane Drohan and 2B/SS David Hamilton

[True Blue Brew Crew]

This strikes me as I can't believe we can get Harrison for Durbin so even though it creates an immediate puzzle to solve at 3B, we can't pass this up. I think Jett is the starting 3B come opening day with Made, Pratt, Pena, and Fisher in mind as soon as next season. Remember at this time last year there were all kinds of doubts Durbin could play 3rd. And Williams is considered a better more versatile defender (with a better bat to boot) than Caleb. So I'm not all that worried about surviving a year with Jett a 3B if it means getting a potential top of or near top of rotation lefty with 5 years of control. I have zero doubt that the Brewers have a plan to unlock to best of Harrison which is near Ace pedigree.

Basically a too good to pass up type deal

[wallus]

The team isn't moving Joey back to 3rd base. The fact that I've read that on multiple sites is amazing.

[Sakatarama]

3 minutes ago, MoreTrife said:

Would've been fun to trot out a lineup of Durbin, Jett, Sal and Ortiz. 

I was seriously considering trademarking the phrase: "Murphy's Murder Midgets" for that lineup. Alas.

[long ball]

This is definitely surprising. I don’t know a lot about the guys we got back, but here are my take aways on each player in the trade. 
 

Durbin- almost like the Isaac Collins trade maybe? Selling high now before he reverts to a bench/utility role? I like Durbin and he played really well for us last year, but i also don’t think he has a very high ceiling. Arm strength will prevent him from being an elite defender and I’m not sure there’s a lot of improvement we can look for in the offensive profile. So if he’s a 3 win player at his ceiling, but likely to revert to a bench role for us in the next year or so then I understand selling now. 
 

Monasterio- he’s a solid enough utility player. But batting right handed was maybe a small roster tweak they wanted to address with their utility infielder. 
 

Seigler- ya I won’t say I’m upset that the Seigler experiment has ended. 
 

harrison- well he fits right into that group of Patrick, Henderson, Sproat, and Gasser for that 4 and 5 spots in the rotation. I thought we needed one more depth piece for the rotation- likely a veteran free agent. However, I don’t think we need that anymore. May still sign a rehabbing guy like Montgomery, but I don’t think we need a low upside innings eater like Quintana at this point. 
 

Drohan- holy lefties. Kinda seems like he might ride the bullpen shuttle in 2026 and beyond. 
 

Hamilton- he’s probably your Monasterio replacement but he bats lefty. So he might be a better roster fit than Monasterio?

 

overall: probably a good value for the Brewers. We improved our rotation depth, something I think we needed. We added another arm to the bullpen shuttle- something I think we needed. 
 

the infield alignment is hazy to me. I’m not sure I’d believe there’s another significant move out there (like adding parades). If I had to guess today… Eddys Leonard and David Hamilton platoon somewhere on the infield to start the year. Then we will see a mixture of Jett Williams and Brock Wilken start to fill those innings starting in May. 

[TURBO]

30 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

He was the regular 3B in Nashville in 2023. Battled injury in both 2024 and 2025. 

At this point, his only path to Big League time may hedge on the ability to play 3B. 

Not a chance he is playing 3B at the MLB level, for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2026.

Not a chance.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Like others, I need a bit more time with this one, but, without getting into evaluation of what I think, I'd say the following things are true:

1) The FO has earned some trust.

2) Clearly, there's belief that Durbin has reached his peak value and now's a good time to cash in.

3) Stockpiling controllable pitchers (and pitching depth) makes a lot of sense for a team like the Brewers.

4) They're operating on "best player available" principles, not really worrying about position and just acquire as much talent as possible. I think this largely makes sense given their position in the market and the rising positional flexibility of today's INFs. 

A lot comes down to how much people value Durbin/Mona and how much faith they have in the Brewers to make these two pitchers into something worthwhile. I think this will work out for us from a WAR perspective. If no other moves are made, though, it also means we're going to be rolling through infielders and hoping prospects are ready to contribute ahead of schedule. I think we got more talented today. I'm not sure, though, we got BETTER. That's the part I need more thinking on.

[wallus]

How would we feel about Ramon Urias as a stopgap? I don't know of any other free agents still out there right now.

[MrTPlush]

If you took rookie hitters that weren’t phenomenal prospects and they then placed in the ROY voting (that also didn’t put up crazy stats to get votes) you would see most of those guys regress massively and often become fringe MLB players.

I think trading Collin’s and Durbin is just playing the odds and likely selling high on them before they have no value 6-12 months from now.

We could be wrong…but history says we probably made a good choice.

 

 

 

 

[MrTPlush]

Just now, wallus said:

How would we feel about Ramon Urias as a stopgap? I don't know of any other free agents still out there right now.

Doug Melvin would be calling Yuni B out of retirement right about now.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

8 minutes ago, TURBO said:

Not a chance he is playing 3B at the MLB level, for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2026.

Not a chance.

With how this team values defense, you are probably right.

But at the same time, when most think the Brewers are going to zig, they zag.

I wonder if the "Frelick to 3B" experiment continues over the next several weeks? 

[duewizard]

Feels like maybe something else will happen in the next few days?

Overall, don't hate the trade. I will miss Durbin and Mona as some of my favorite guys on the team but I understand selling Durbin when his value is high and the roster construction aspect of trading Mona. The return is at least interesting. Hamilton is capable and both pitchers have upside. 

The one thing I don't love is losing the draft pick. Not because of the pick per se but because of the pool money. The flexibility to add guys in rounds 10-20 with the extra pool money is something we have benefited from over the past few years.

[Team Canada]

After Priester, you'd think the Brewers calling about another pitcher would've prompted some second guessing in Boston about whether they should give Milwaukee said pitcher.

Did not see this coming, and it'll be fascinating to watch what we're going to do in the infield this spring.

[wallus]

1 minute ago, Team Canada said:

After Priester, you'd think the Brewers calling about another pitcher would've prompted some second guessing in Boston about whether they should give Milwaukee said pitcher.

Did not see this coming, and it'll be fascinating to watch what we're going to do in the infield this spring.

Could entirely be wrong but this feels like the Sox called us targeting Durbin

[BadgerBert1]

1 minute ago, Team Canada said:

After Priester, you'd think the Brewers calling about another pitcher would've prompted some second guessing in Boston about whether they should give Milwaukee said pitcher.

Did not see this coming, and it'll be fascinating to watch what we're going to do in the infield this spring.

I did not foresee this trade... Durbin was a fan favorite and talented.

[Team Canada]

Just now, wallus said:

Could entirely be wrong but this feels like the Sox called us targeting Durbin

Yeah you may be right, in which case presumably we really like Harrison and figured we'd try asking for him and were able to make it work.

The fact that it's Durbin AND Monasterio AND Siegler is kinda crazy to me. Like we wanted to trade that much IF depth and Boston wanted that much? Obviously they're each a different tier of player, but it's so much of the same.

[edfunderburk]

Confession: I haven’t read any of the comments in this thread yet … I plan to do so once I get “free” from work later today. 

I must admit, I am a HUGE Caleb Durbin fan so I’m initially quite sad & a little perplexed by this trade. In one way it makes sense with so many dynamic prospects knocking on the major league door. 

It seems odd to me that we traded all of our major league options at 3B. I’m disappointed that Mayer wasn’t included - Hamilton hit .198 last year. He’s fast as lightning but already 29 years old. 

I’m sure members of this board who are more knowledgeable than me will help clarify “why” this trade makes sense. 

Color me confused & a little sad. Curious to see who makes the Opening Day roster & especially who is playing 3B.

I do trust Matt Arnold … so it is wait & see for me. I wonder if another trade is in the works. 

[jay87shot]

This is crazy to me. I really liked Durbin, he was really that Milwaukee/Murphy guy. He will be great and loved in Boston like Pedroia and his fly ball tendencies will likely be great with the monster in left. At first I wanted to trash this, however Harrison as a lefty complement to our other young starters is tantalizing. Hamilton is similar to Mone and Seigler in value, probably a better defender and top notch speed but less contact (batting average). I think Drohan is a potential wild card steal here, 5 pitch mix up to 95. He had 2.27 era with 77/21 k/bb in 15 appearances over 54 innings. He is 27, but I think there are lots of options for a quality arm that should be at least as good as DL Hall. He is probably the comp b pick value.

Harrison however is really where we should focus. I think a big area our team can improve with him is on pitch usage, he used the 4 seam (59%) and slurve (27%) a combined 86% of the time despite having a 5 pitch mix. My guess is that we can us some early Freddy style taming here and develop the cutter and changeup (what seems to be our organizational specialties) and get him to that 2/3 style starter. We are overly loaded with top end potential young arms now, it is extremely intreuging.

Paredes isn't my favorite 3B option. I will have to scour the league to see what else could be out there at 3B as an option, but my guess is that we have someone in mind to move Durbs. Could Matt Shaw be an option if the cubs don't move Hoerner? 

[Dadbauer]

Seems to me like the Brewers got an offer for Durbin they just couldn't refuse - they never turn down good arms that they like and young controllable starting pitching is super valuable especially when you can develop it. 

Durbin is nice and I really like him, but he has a weak arm and is not great at stealing bases. I feel like we've seen close to his ceiling already. I feel the same way that I did when we traded Collins. 

 

[Bulldogboy]

Are the Brewers better now than end of last season? Not a chance anyone believes that so what are we doing here? That and once again pissing off the team leader and catcher by going to arby. This team sure seems to make things a bit more difficult than they have to be. Just my opinion of course. 

[TURBO]

8 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

Could Matt Shaw be an option if the cubs don't move Hoerner? 

You think the Brewers and Cubs can become trade partners?

I find the odds of that happening at about 0% to be honest.

We have options at 3B in the pipeline who are not quite ready yet, but are getting closer.  Overpaying the Cubs for anything we will have soon would be crazy, absolutely nutjob crazy.  

Nope, the Cubs as a trading partner isn't something that will happen...

[sveumrules]

2 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

Are the Brewers better now than end of last season? Not a chance anyone believes that so what are we doing here? That and once again pissing off the team leader and catcher by going to arby. This team sure seems to make things a bit more difficult than they have to be. Just my opinion of course. 

Who believed the 2025 Brewers were better than the 2024 Brewers before pitchers and catchers had even reported to Maryvale?

Here is the 2025 Season Win Prediction thread, the overwhelming majority of the posters saw them regressing from the 93 wins they posted in 2024.

[wallus]

Don't want Shaw on the Brewers... Nope 

[Jopal78]

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt but to me it seems like shuffling players around:

Devin Williams -> Durbin & Cortes

Cortes -> Lockridge

Durbin, Monasterio, Siegler -> Harrison, Drohan, Hamilton.

So Devin Williams for a two talented but un-proven arms, an infielder they traded away once before and a 5th outfielder.

 

[liveforoctober]

Well, this definitely clears the runway for infield innings in Nashville. I'm not sure Mona or Seigler were going see much big league time once Jett proved worthy ... so both would have been eating innings down there. Lots of quick promotions seemingly in the pipeline once the season starts.

Can't worry about opening day infield options yet - more action is coming. Will wait until we have our roster set. 

I hope Brock Wilken has been eating his Wheaties. He may have just been handed a life changing opportunity.

[liveforoctober]

Also a side note ... I can't remember a time in my life having more left-handed pitching than we currently do.