When Caleb Durbin walked up to the plate at American Family Field in Milwaukee on April 18, 2025, he felt a burst of nerves. Not fear, exactly, but awe. Awe that after years of perseverance and hard work, he was actually here: a big leaguer, the starting third baseman for the Milwaukee Brewers.
“It was absolutely mind-blowing,” says Durbin, AB ’22, who had two hits, stole a base and scored a run in a Brewers’ win. “You look around and see guys like Christian Yelich and Rhys Hoskins. All-stars. Veteran players. And then you think — these are my teammates! It was incredible.”
Durbin went on to hit .256 with 11 home runs and 18 steals in his debut season for a Brewers team that would pace the National League all season and win 97 games en route to an N.L. Central Division title. His impressive debut season not only garnered a third-place finish in National League Rookie of the Year voting, he was also the linchpin in a six-player trade February 9 in which the Brewers sent him to Boston for prospects. As spring training opened, he was penciled in as the Red Sox’ starting third baseman.
What makes Durbin’s emergence as a key player all the more remarkable is that at the time of his debut in Milwaukee last spring, he was the only Major League Baseball position player to have come from a Division III school. What’s more, he and fellow WashU alumnus Ryan Loutos, AB ’21, a righthander with the Seattle Mariners, are among just 24 WashU alumni to play MLB baseball and the first since Dal Maxvill retired in 1975.
From Division III to MLB
Growing up in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois, Durbin played as many sports as he could. By the time he got to Lake Forest High, he concentrated heavily on wrestling (his dad and brother were both wrestlers at Northwestern University) and baseball. In the back of his mind, he envisioned a future of playing baseball professionally.
But he knew he needed a backup plan, and that was WashU. Durbin matriculated in the fall of 2018 and began studying economics and playing baseball for Coach Pat Bloom. As a junior, he and Loutos were on the historic Bears team that earned a trip to the NCAA Division III World Series for the first time in program history.
That summer, in 2021, he anchored the infield for the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders of the Northwoods League — a competitive collegiate summer league designed for players with professional aspirations. “I didn’t know if I was going to get drafted,” Durbin says. “My internship that summer was playing baseball. That was my summer job.”
As the July draft drew closer, the Atlanta Braves emerged as the organization most seriously interested in Durbin. When they selected him in the 14th round, he celebrated — but he also made a promise to himself. “I knew I still wanted my degree,” he says. “That’s why I chose WashU in the first place. If baseball didn’t work out, I knew I needed a great education to fall back on.”
The result was an eventful senior year: mornings on the field with the Braves’ Class-A minor-league teams in Augusta, Georgia, then evenings in his apartment finishing WashU economics courses online through Continuing & Professional Studies (CAPS), then known as University College. “If the team was playing on the road, I’d study or attend class in the morning then transition into full baseball-player mode in the evenings,” he says. “I had four classes at the time, so I still felt like a student athlete.”
By spring 2022, he was a professional ballplayer with a freshly minted WashU diploma. “Looking back, it means even more now,” Durbin says. “There aren’t many big leaguers with a college degree. It’s something I’m incredibly proud of. I’m so thankful to WashU for working around my schedule to make it happen.”
As a college player, Durbin knew that Division III position players rarely reach the major leagues. “I always had a dream plan to play in the big leagues,” he says. “But as you get older, you have a more realistic perspective on how hard it really is going to be.”
He credits two things for shaping his belief this aspiration of professional baseball possible. First, elite summer competition. Playing in the Northwoods League — just a notch below the famed Cape Cod League — exposed Durbin to high-level Division I athletes and future professionals. “I could see I stacked up with them,” he says. “That gave me confidence.”
And second, a bit of necessary delusion. “You have to be a little crazy,” he laughs. “You’re 5-foot-6, playing Division III baseball, dreaming of the big leagues? You have to lean into that mindset of, ‘I’m going for this, no matter what.’”
And academically, Durbin says, WashU made perfect sense. “My thinking was: Use baseball to get into the best school you can and then commit to getting that degree,” he says. “Having a college education made me feel like I was going to be OK no matter what. And that gave me the peace of mind to go all-in on baseball.”
Hardy strong
Durbin’s WashU experience was shaped not only by baseball and classes but also by strong personal friendships — none more important than his relationship with a Bears basketball player named Justin Hardy. Hardy’s story of grace and courage amid terminal stomach cancer made national headlines and inspired thousands. Sadly, Hardy died at age 22 in May of 2022.
Durbin and Hardy lived across the hall from one another as first-year students and shared a dorm suite sophomore year. “We were really tight,” Durbin says. “I still talk to his mom all the time.”
Last season, when the Brewers traveled to St. Louis, Durbin helped organize a special event with the Hardy family to honor Justin’s legacy and support the Hardy Strong Foundation, which raises awareness and funding for stomach cancer research. “It was really meaningful,” Durbin says. “I want to share Justin’s story every chance I get.”
Durbin’s career path has included one especially unique twist: sharing it with another WashU alumnus, pitcher Ryan Loutos, who signed professionally the same year and made his MLB debut in 2024.
“We really went through the whole journey together, even to this day,” Durbin says. “There aren’t a lot of people who have experienced the path that we both have, and we’re going through it at the same time. It’s been fantastic to share it with him.
“We always even joked that someday we’d face each other in the big leagues,” Durbin says. “And then it actually happened.”
It happened on August 1, 2025, in a Nationals–Brewers matchup in Washington, D.C., when Durbin stepped into the box against his former teammate. The result?
“I got a hit through the left side,” he grins. “The shortstop almost robbed me, but I’ll take it. We’re 1-1 now — he got me out in Triple-A, I got him in the big leagues.”
A rookie season to remember
By the end of his first year, Durbin wasn’t just sticking in the majors — he was thriving. He helped lead the Brewers to the National League Championship Series in 2025, and became a fan favorite for his speed, defense and relentless work ethic. “As a rookie, you just hope for a chance,” he says. “The Brewers gave me an opportunity, and I tried to make the most of it.”
Three months later, he was still pinching himself.
“Being in the locker room with my teammates is incredible, looking around at all the talent we have. It’s really a special group of guys,” he says. “And then I go out onto the field and I’m competing against Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and all these big-name athletes.
At first it was a little overwhelming. “But now that I’ve settled in a bit, it’s just an incredibly cool aspect of what I get to do every day,” he says. “At first there were nerves. Then it became confidence.”
That confidence has spilled over into his new team. Durbin is already making a splash in the Red Sox spring training camp, with 5 RBIs in his first five spring games. But he’ll never take it for granted. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Durbin split his loyalties between the Cubs and White Sox, but it was Wrigley Field that captured his imagination. “It’s such an iconic venue,” he says. “I went to the majority of my games there. I still remember going to my last game as a fan after my first or second year at WashU. The Nationals were in Chicago and Bryce Harper was playing. Anthony Rizzo hit a bomb to right,” he says. “It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago.”
Last season, jogging onto Wrigley Field for the first time as an opposing player, he paused for a moment and let it all sink in. “It was surreal,” he says. “This was my home-town ballpark. I grew up watching games here and now I’m playing here. It’s a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
With a breakout rookie season behind him and now playing for a new team in Boston, Durbin knows he needs to work hard to keep improving his game. “Getting here was a dream,” he says. “Staying here and getting better — that’s the goal now.”
For WashU alumni and fans, Durbin represents something bigger: proof that talent, determination and a world-class education can take you places no one expects. Even, sometimes, all the way to The Show.
“Staying here and getting better — that’s the goal now.”
