{"id":4257,"date":"2026-07-04T16:02:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T16:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2026-07-04T16:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T16:02:35","slug":"how-caleb-durbin-recovered-from-the-ghastly-start-to-his-red-sox-career-you-gotta-do-what-you-gotta-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4257","title":{"rendered":"How Caleb Durbin recovered from the ghastly start to his Red Sox career: \u2018You gotta do what you gotta do\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>Caleb Durbin doesn\u2019t shy from the idea that he\u2019s a hitting obsessive, but he did identify limits to the trait.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4255\">The Nationals are full of surprises this season as their rebuild speeds up under new management\u2019s watch<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m not sleeping with my bat or anything like that,\u201d said Durbin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Still, he spends plenty of time in the company of his lumber, even away from the park. He brings an extra bat on the road to keep with him \u2014 mostly in his hotel room, but he\u2019ll also occasionally find a venue for a morning hitting session \u2014 in case he wants to search for or lock in a feeling. He also packs a tee in his suitcase and will smash foam balls into a curtain in his room if the mood strikes him.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cYou gotta do what you gotta do,\u201d shrugged Durbin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The 26-year-old Red Sox third baseman finds both comfort and confidence in the time he commits to the craft. Even when he endured the worst stretch of his life the first two months of this season, he remained convinced he\u2019d climb a ladder out of his hole based on his willingness to work until he found one.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>\u201cI never really got flustered throughout the start of the season, because I\u2019ve always figured it out,\u201d said Durbin. \u201cI was going to figure it out because of how much I love hitting and how much I care about it. I understand that sometimes you just lose feels, and at the end of the day, you fall back on the work you\u2019re putting in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Durbin\u2019s commitment to hitting stems from curiosity and an atypical baseball education. As a kid, his primary hitting coach was his father, Regis, who never played baseball.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHe would just watch videos and we\u2019d go to the cage every day, and he\u2019d teach me,\u201d said Durbin.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span>Related<span>: <\/span><\/span>\u2018I push the boundaries\u2019: Willson Contreras isn\u2019t about to apologize for playing with passion and an edge<\/div>\n<p><span>They identified an approach and swing that was good enough to make Durbin an all-conference player in high school, which resulted in an opportunity to play Division 3 at Washington University in St. Louis. He showed enough in college (.386\/.477\/.684 with 10 homers and 39 steals in 93 career games, including a junior year where he struck out just twice in 190 plate appearances) to have the Braves tab him as a 14th-round pick in the 2021 draft. But he quickly discovered that his tools weren\u2019t translating to pro ball.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe swing that worked at the Division 3 level, I took that to rookie ball, and I couldn\u2019t really get the ball in the air,\u201d said Durbin. \u201cI struggled.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>And so, he searched. At a college friend\u2019s recommendation, Durbin went in the offseason of 2021-22 to Driveline in Seattle (where he was introduced to current Red Sox hitting coach John Soteropulos as well as current Sox minor league coordinator JP Fasone). His father also found videos of St. Louis-based hitting instructor Richard Schenck \u2014 \u201cTeacherman,\u201d a polarizing figure in the baseball world known for his work with Aaron Judge and frequent social media feuds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4253\">Their children are too sick to go to school. These parents are fighting for them to get a better education at home.<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>Durbin starting working with Schenck that same offseason.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI rolled with [Schenck] for three, four years, and still believe in [his methods],\u201d Durbin said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Already gifted with excellent bat-to-ball skills, Durbin learned how to drive the ball in the air and positioned himself to emerge as an unlikely prospect who was targeted in a succession of trades. He was dealt from Atlanta to the Yankees after 2022, to the Brewers after 2024, and \u2014 after he finished third in NL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2025 \u2014 to the Red Sox this spring.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But the brutal start to this season (.163\/.241\/.238 with a sky-high 58 percent ground-ball rate, putting his job as an everyday player in jeopardy) led to another search for answers and adjustments. In addition to the incredible volume of work (100 to 200 swings a day) he did at the park, Durbin also started working with Lorenzo Garmendia of Gradum GSwing.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span>Related<span>: <\/span><\/span>Cape Cod League baseball players chase their big league dreams in scouting showcase at Fenway Park<\/div>\n<p><span>The focus was to create better direction. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The adjustment served as an unlock. In 31 games through Friday\u2019s game against the Angels, he\u2019s cemented himself back at third base, hitting .321\/.356\/.615 with seven homers. His season numbers (.230\/.289\/.398) remain below average, but are quickly trending up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>With his typical open stance, Durbin was spinning off the ball, losing power and hitting grounders. He closed his stance in an effort to create and hold a cleaner line in his stride that allowed him to keep his weight behind the ball while staying inside of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The adjustment served as an unlock. In 30 games entering the start of the weekend series against the Angels, he\u2019s cemented himself back at third base, hitting .321\/.351\/.594 with six homers. Durbin\u2019s season numbers (.229\/.286\/.387) remain below average, but are trending up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe ball was just going straight in the ground when I hit it [early in the year], and it\u2019s not doing that as much anymore. It\u2019s a pretty pronounced difference,\u201d said Durbin, whose ground-ball rate has fallen to 41 percent. \u201cI don\u2019t know why it took me so long, but once it clicked, it clicked, and now it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, I have a better idea now than I\u2019ve ever had.\u2019 It\u2019s definitely the best I\u2019ve felt, and I think even [including] the minor leagues it\u2019s the best I\u2019ve hit numbers-wise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The hairpin turn from the worst slump of his life to the best peak of his life serves as a microcosm of the maddening, addictive art of hitting. There will come a time when Durbin again finds himself in a hole. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4251\">Trump pardons former Abramoff partner, 9 people convicted of violating vehicle emissions controls<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>He will have a bat close at hand to start working his way back out. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even when he endured the worst stretch of his career, the 26-year-old remained convinced he\u2019d climb a ladder out of his hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Caleb Durbin recovered from the ghastly start to his Red Sox career: \u2018You gotta do what you gotta do\u2019 - 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