Ever since leading WashU to the College World Series in 2021, Caleb Durbin has been rising through the baseball ranks, and was named to the roster of the New York Yankees in November. (Courtesy of Melanie Schaefer | WashU Athletics).
When Student Life asked Caleb Durbin, then a standout junior on the WashU baseball team, about his professional baseball aspirations in April of 2021, he mentioned the New York Yankees as one of his dream destinations.
“[The] Yankees have so much history, so it’d be sick to play for them,” Durbin, Class of 2022, said.
Three and a half years after playing his final game for the Bears, Durbin is on the cusp of turning his dream into a reality. On Monday, Nov. 18, the infielder was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster. Now one call away from the big leagues, Durbin has a strong chance of making the active roster when the season begins in April and could play a big role for the Yankees next year.
“I think in the spring, it’s the mindset, at least, from what they’ve told me, is get ready to compete for the second-base job, and if not, then some type of utility role, and then go from there,” Durbin said in an interview with Student Life in November 2024.
Never touted as a top prospect, Durbin has consistently risen through the ranks of the minor leagues. The 24-year-old is coming off a historic performance in the Arizona Fall League (AFL), where he took home the AFL’s Breakout Prospect of the Year Award. Playing against some of the top prospects in baseball, Durbin smashed the AFL stolen base record, swiping 29 bags in 24 games, while slashing an impressive .312/.427/.548 line.
Durbin’s performance in the Fall League sets him up to compete for a starting role next year, something Yankees manager Aaron Boone expressed in an interview earlier this month.
“This guy’s gonna be a big league player,” Boone said. “I think he’s going to play a big role for us this upcoming season.”
The Lake Forest, Illinois native has always had high expectations for himself. Yet despite having pro ball aspirations from high school, the 5’6’’ infielder faced little interest from Division I programs.
Before getting a call from then-assistant coach Adam Rosen, Durbin knew very little about WashU and its baseball program.
“I wasn’t getting a whole lot of [Division I] interest at the time, and I didn’t even know what WashU was … I didn’t even pick it up at first,” Durbin said. “I called him back, and the first thing he said was, ‘Yeah, if you want to play here, you’re gonna have to get your ACT score up to a 32.’”
Fortunately for the Bears, Durbin was able to improve his score, and in 2018, he committed to WashU. He was an instant contributor at WashU, starting all 40 games at shortstop his first year. After COVID-19 shortened his sophomore season, Durbin led the Bears to the Division III College World Series in his junior year. In 93 games with the Bears throughout three years, Durbin recorded as many home runs (10) as he did strikeouts.
Durbin was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 14th round of the 2021 MLB Draft, a moment he described as “the best day of my life.” (Clara Richards | Student Life)
After three years at WashU, Durbin was drafted in the 14th round of the 2021 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves. He became the third WashU player ever to be drafted, and the first since the Yankees took Russ Chambliss with the 1,477th pick in the 1997 draft.
“Getting drafted was probably the best day of my life,” Durbin said. “Having the opportunity to play pro ball was my dream my entire life. So to get that call was probably one of the biggest things that’s happened.”
Even after getting drafted, making it to the major leagues was still a long shot for Durbin. Fewer than 1 in 10 players taken after the first 10 rounds go on to make it to the MLB. No player from WashU had debuted in the majors since 1962, and Chambliss’ Minor League career ended in 2000 — the year Durbin was born.
But Durbin has played himself into promotions at each level of Minor League ball. He swiped 12 bases in his 17 games of rookie ball in 2021. In 2022, the last time Student Life caught up with him, he split time between High-A Rome and Low-A Augusta in the Braves system. While playing Minor League ball in Augusta, Durbin finished his WashU education online on the Braves’ dime.
“I would basically do my schoolwork in the mornings, and then I’d go play a professional baseball game for the Braves Low-A team at night,” Durbin said. “I was a WashU student by day, and a Braves minor leaguer by night.”
While playing in the Braves system, Durbin completed his WashU coursework online. In 2022, he was traded to the Yankees franchise. (Clara Richards | Student Life)
With the Braves in need of bullpen help in the 2022 offseason, they turned to the Yankees, swinging a deal for journeyman reliever Lucas Luetge. In exchange for Luetge, Durbin and fellow Minor League pitcher Indigo Diaz were flipped to New York.
Since joining the Yankees’ Minor League system, Durbin has broken out. In 2023, he swiped 36 bases while batting .304 for the Yankees’ High-A and Double-A affiliates. Early in 2024, Durbin was called up to Triple-A Scranton, just one call away from Yankee Stadium. Last season Durbin continued to shine on the basepaths, while also demonstrating increased power and defensive versatility.
Durbin’s positional utility adds to his value on the diamond. Almost solely a shortstop at WashU, Durbin has spent time all over the diamond in the minors, with a majority of his innings coming at second and third base. Last season, he logged games at second base, third base, shortstop, center field, and left field, in both the Fall League and with Triple-A Scranton.
“I always say my favorite position is the position I’m playing that day. Wherever they put me in the lineup is my favorite position,” Durbin said.
But the utility man has his sights set on second base, a position of need for the Yankees next year and beyond. “[I’m] ready to hone in on the second base job, but also be ready for the other positions as well.”
If Durbin can become the Yankees’ everyday second baseman, it would put him among the legendary likes of Robinson Canó, Tony Lazzeri, Willie Randolph, and other greats to man the position for the Yankees. If he steps on a big-league diamond, Durbin would join Ryan Loutos as the second member of the Bears’ 2021 College World Series team to play in the MLB.
Loutos, who debuted for the Cardinals last May, developed a relationship with Durbin during their time at WashU that has continued throughout their rise through the minors.
“We’ve both dreamt of playing in the big leagues since we were super young, and we’ve basically had the same journey,” Durbin said. “Seeing him jump to Triple-A within his first full season was one of the biggest things that I could look at and get inspiration from.”
Matt Ashbaugh, who played on the WashU baseball team with both Durbin and Loutos and graduated in 2020, saw similarities between the two during his time with the Bears.
“Durbin is very similar to Loutos, personality-wise and in a lot of ways,” Ashbaugh said. “They both have the ‘it’ factor, a good work ethic, and attention to detail. These guys are grinders and they’re always putting in the extra work.”
Durbin, left, and Loutos, right, joined few other players in WashU history to be offered professional contracts. (Clara Richards | Student Life)
The second baseman has been overlooked throughout his entire career — by D-I baseball programs, by the Braves, and even by media outlets that have yet to rank Durbin as a top-30 prospect in the Yankees’ system. Durbin is now on the cusp of proving everybody wrong.
“I want to reach my full potential in this sport and in this game, and I think that I’m on a really good path, [but] I’m not able to do that until I play in the big leagues,” Durbin said.
Having spent time in the Minor Leagues with other prospects and in spring training last year, Durbin has built several relationships with players on the Yankees roster, which he sees as an advantage.
“[Yankees starting catcher] Austin Wells is … one of my best friends in the organization. Ben Rice got up there for quite a bit this year. I’m living with him in spring training,” Durbin said. “It helps to have those relationships outside of baseball, with guys who have played in the bigs and have seen that stuff … [it] definitely is going to be helpful going into next year.”
The journey from Kelly Field in St. Louis, Missouri, to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx is far from an orthodox one. But Durbin is ready to contribute to a Major League ball club when his number is called.
“It’s something that I’ve thought about, again, my entire life. So, when the time comes, hopefully, it comes, and I’ll be ready. Because it’s something that I’ve been preparing for pretty much my whole life.”