At the time, it looked like the Yankees were making a minor move when they acquired Indigo Diaz and Caleb Durbin from the Braves for Lucas Luetge. Neither prospect was highly touted, and it wasn’t like New York had any leverage here since it was a DFA that created the trade situation, meaning the Yankees were prepared to lose him for nothing. Thus far, this trade is looking like anything but an afterthought, as Durbin has emerged as a top performer in the organization over the last two seasons, and this year he’s off to an unbelievable start to his Triple-A career.
He’s been the best hitter at the highest level Minor League Baseball has to offer, and just a step away from the big leagues, we could see the versatile 24-year-old sooner rather than later in the Bronx.
This is one of the biggest underdog stories in professional baseball, as Caleb Durbin is one of the few Division III players currently at the Triple-A level. It’s no secret that people look at Division I sports far more, with events like March Madness, the College World Series, and the various Bowl games being considered some of the biggest events in sports, rivaling their professional counterparts. At Washington University in St. Louis, Caleb Durbin wasn’t going to experience any of that glamour and attention, but he played well enough to get drafted in the 14th Round by the Atlanta Braves.
It’s been a very long time since a player from Washington University, over 60 years to be exact, as Dal Mavill remains the most recent alumni to accomplish that feat. Standing at just 5’6, he’s also at a physical disadvantage to most players, who have more height and size to leverage for power in their swings, but Caleb Durbin has maximized his profile and is proving that he’s an anomaly. So far, he’s slashing .469/.571/.781 with a 242 wRC+ across his first nine games, showing off good game power while also generating plenty of contact.
There are a lot of excellent underlying skills that have fueled his hot streak as well, with a low groundball rate and high pull rate indicating that he’s getting the ball in the air often, and using his pull-side power. It would seem strange for a smaller hitter to want to pull the ball more but pulled contact in the air does far more damage than opposite field or straightaway contact in the air. He also has a 41.9% Sweet Spot Rate, which is a metric that measures how often you hit a batted ball between 8 and 32 degrees, where there’s a high probability for a hit
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