Sunday, June 07

MILWAUKEE -- Pat Murphy points to the Brewers’ banged-up lineup, the uber-young rotation and an overworked bullpen, and bills his ballclub as an underdog. 

One of his favorite former players isn’t buying it. 

“The cat’s out of the bag,” Caleb Durbin said. “Everyone knows how the Brewers play.”

Durbin, dealt by the Brewers to the Red Sox at the start of Spring Training in a six-player swap, got the better end of the teams’ meeting at Fenway Park this week as Boston took two of three. But the Brewers nonetheless emerged in first place in the National League Central, seeking to extend their streak of three consecutive division titles. 

Durbin will keep an eye on things from the outside. He knows a lot of others will have eyes on Milwaukee, too. 

“There’s more attention from other teams [on] the Brewers than maybe perceived,” Durbin said. “Like, they’re not shocking anyone this year, you know what I mean? Whether we did or not last year, I was on the inside at the time, and now, I’m on the outside and no one’s taking these guys lightly. I’ll tell you that much.”

Durbin expected to still be playing for the Brewers after finishing third in NL Rookie of the Year Award balloting last year. He had actually traveled to Phoenix by the second week of February and was getting ready to drive into the Brewers complex on the morning of Feb. 9 with one of his Spring Training roommates, Milwaukee outfielder Brandon Lockridge. They were sharing a place with one of their former Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre teammates, Josh Breaux, who’d signed with the Reds.

At 7 a.m., Durbin’s phone rang. It was Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold. 

“I walked out of my room and told them I got traded,” Durbin said.

Lockridge and Breaux thought he was joking. The night before as Breaux was moving his belongings into the apartment, Durbin feigned moving out because he’d been traded. It was a prank. 

Now, it was real. 

“It actually happened the next morning,” Lockridge said. “Complete coincidence.” 

Durbin was off to a slow start with his new team as the Brewers came to Beantown, with two hits in his first 30 plate appearances. But his old manager still had a soft spot for the 5-foot-6 infielder, and pleaded through the Boston media for Red Sox fans to give Durbin a chance. 

“If anybody was watching the Milwaukee Brewers -- which I know, a lot of people don't watch the Milwaukee Brewers because, you know, people don't know about us yet -- but anybody who watched us last year knows that a huge part of our success was that kid,” Murphy said. “Like, he epitomized our spirit. He epitomized what we were about and how we played the game. 

“Yeah, I don't worry about that kid at all. Don't lose sleep over his lack of numbers so far. I knew another kid who played for Boston that started slow, and he's going to get his number put up there some day I think.” 

That other kid was Dustin Pedroia, who played for Murphy at Arizona State before he helped the Red Sox win a pair of World Series. 

Murphy is certainly not comparing the two, but said he believes Durbin will pull through.

"Durbs just figures out a way. He's that kid,” Murphy said. 

That support from his former skipper meant the world to Durbin as he struggled to gain a foothold in a tough market. He’ll never forget how Murphy helped kick-start his career.

“The biggest thing is that in a business where it’s so numbers-focused, and production on the field is huge, he really made an emphasis about the person -- the person playing the game and the relationships that you build throughout the course of a season. 

“That’s a very underrated part of the game. That’s the culture he was able to build over there. It’s something I’m really glad I got to experience.”

Speaking of former Brewers, here’s a fun fact from Nationals outfielder Joey Wiemer. 

Remember that crazy play at Yankee Stadium in September 2023, when Wiemer and Sal Frelick collided on the warning track in right-center field and Frelick came away with an insane catch that kept the Brewers’ bid for a no-hitter alive in the 10th inning? They went on to lose the no-hitter and the game in the 11th, but it remains one of the most vivid Brewers highlights in recent years. 

It also left a mark. 

Wiemer showed off a scar on his left elbow from the play, which he says was caused by the scoreboard on the outfield wall at that spot. Wiemer also took an elbow to the chin from Frelick. 

“I definitely got the worst of that one,” Wiemer said. 

He’s back in Milwaukee with his fourth team since the Brewers traded Wiemer to the Reds in the Frankie Montas deal in July 2024. He helped out the Brewers at the start of this season as part of a record-tying run in which Wiemer became the second player in the Live Ball Era (since 1920) to reach base 10 consecutive times to start the season. (Toronto's Carlos Delgado was the other, in 2002.) 

How did that help the Brewers? The Nationals’ first series was at Wrigley Field, and Wiemer went 6-for-6 with a pair of homers against the Cubs in a pair of Washington wins.

• “Even though the official branding is City Connect, we call it ‘State Connect’ internally,” said Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger. Here’s why it made sense for the Brewers’ new alternate uniforms to be for the whole state of Wisconsin. More >>

• Brewers equipment manager Jason Shawger -- “czar of equipment and stuff” according to the nameplate on his desk -- doesn’t miss a thing when it comes to the small details. Here’s a video explaining why he embraced the challenge of the new City Connects. More >>

• This week brought some progress for Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn in their comebacks from hand injuries. Here’s the latest. More >>

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