EARNING HIS PINSTRIPES

New York Yankees middle-infielder prospect and former Lake Forest High School diamond gem Caleb Durbin aims to do more than sip “a cup of coffee”—baseball-ese for “get a few at-bats” or “play a couple of innings”— in the major leagues.

He has set his sights on chugging vats and vats of java, for years and years, and making Major League Baseball pitchers feel jittery each time he plants his 5-foot-7, 185-pound frame into a batter’s box.

“I’m trying to become the best professional baseball player I can be,” says Durbin, a 2018 Lake Forest High School (LFHS) alumnus who suited up for New York’s Double-A affiliate, the Somerset (New Jersey) Patriots of the Eastern League, last summer and then had a helmeted-head-turning Arizona Fall League season as a member of the Mesa Solar Sox.

“I believe I have the potential to be a pretty good major league baseball player,” the Lake Bluff native adds. “I’m focused on reaching that by working with my coaches, listening to them, and doing whatever I can to improve each step of the way.”

It’s impossible not to root, root, root for the 24-year-old Durbin. He played NCAA Division III baseball at Washington University in St. Louis for three seasons (2019-2021), batting .385 and driving in 47 runs in the Bears’ Final Four season in 2021. He gloved a degree in Economics, and, while pocketing early minor-league bucks, earned a WashU Certificate in Business. Scholarships at D-III schools are based on lofty GPAs, not busy OBAs (on-base averages). A D-III grad deftly handling Double-A fastballs and off-speed pitches— only two years after getting drafted by the Atlanta Braves (14th round, 427th overall pick)—is an unfazed Pop Warner running back eluding a linebacker taken in the first round of the NFL Draft.

“Teammates of mine have asked me, ‘Where did you play college baseball?’” Durbin says. “When I tell them, they’re shocked. I chose Washington University because of its excellent academic and baseball reputations. I watched a baseball practice on my visit to the campus, liked what I saw, and I trusted (WU Bears baseball coach) Pat Bloom, who’s known for placing his players in the best summer leagues and for helping them get opportunities at the next level.”

Former LFHS baseball assistant and volunteer assistant coach David Holmes, a 2008 LFHS graduate, isn’t stunned at all at Durbin’s steady climb on the rungs of the minor leagues.

“Caleb has a crazy-high baseball IQ and quiet confidence,” says Holmes, who, as a Denison (Ohio) University outfielder/pitcher, first started working with Durbin at local ball fields in the summer of 2009. “Loves to work hard, loves baseball. To me, he already has a big-league, middle-infield glove to go with his great eye at the plate. Those who doubt a player with a DIII background in baseball could make it in the big leagues haven’t seen Caleb take batting practice or ground balls.

“I’m not surprised Caleb is doing as well as he is in pro ball; anybody who knows him feels the same way. And I’m feeling chills right now as I think about where he’ll end up in baseball. He proved he belonged among the elite prospects years ago in summer leagues. Caleb stood out while playing against Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC (Southeastern Conference) players.”

Durbin played for High-A affiliate Hudson Valley (Fishkill, New York) and Double-A Somerset in 2023, batting a combined .304 with an OBA of .395 and an on-base percentage plus slugging percentage (OPS) of .822. Splendid numbers, all of them. Atlanta had traded him to New York in December 2022.

His game soared during the 2023 Arizona Fall League season. He needed only 23 games to steal a near-record 21 bases, with three of the thefts coming in a November 8 game in which he went 3-for-3 at the plate. Some of his final AFL stats: .353 batting average, .456 OBA, 1.045 OPS, nine doubles, and 12 runs batted in.

But those bedazzling numbers pale in comparison to seven—the puny number of times Durbin struck out in 103 plate appearances. Eagles, bald or otherwise, covet Durbin’s sharp eye at the plate. So did at least one Atlanta Braves scout, who fell in love with Durbin’s plate discipline over a 40-game stretch at WashU. Pitchers fanned Durbin only twice in the lengthy span.

Durbin’s very first pro at-bat—with the Florida Complex League Braves in 202—resulted in a well-earned walk.

“I worked it,” recalls Durbin, the 11th-toughest Division III batter to strike out in his freshman season. “As I’m nearing first base, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my, I’m about to get on base in a pro game.’ I also thought back to my days in Division III baseball and then looked around and realized where I was. Nerves faded after that. I felt settled in, relieved.

“But the best part of that day,” he continues, “was later scoring a run on my teammate’s bases-clearing double.”

Typical Durbin: team first, me dead last. The top highlight of his LFHS baseball career had nothing to do with one of his at-bats and everything to do with teammate Cal Coughlin’s aluminum stick. Durbin was a sophomore at the time, on second base in the bottom of the seventh and final inning of a playoff game. A Scout stood on first base and another was on third. Coughlin then knocked them all in with a walk-off grand slam.

“That was my most memorable high school moment in sports, easily, since nothing else came close to reaching the excitement level after winning a game like that,” Durbin, a four-year varsity wrestler at LFHS, says. “All I wanted to do was win.”

His mindset as an athlete hasn’t changed a bit, not even a synapse. A son of an ex-Northwestern University wrestler (Regis Sr.) and brother of another former NU grappler (Regis, a prep state wrestling champ at 195 pounds, in 2014), the competitive-to-the-bone Caleb will be forever grateful for having grown up in a super-supportive household that also included his mother, Diane, and his older sister, Reanna.

“My parents molded me into the type of person I am today,” Durbin says. “They pushed me, encouraged me, to try different things. It’s been a blessing, my family. Dad was always there for me in my younger years, pitching to me at parks and helping in other ways. His shoulder doesn’t work so well now, but he continues to work with me (at 5 Tool Baseball and Softball in Vernon Hills). Plus, he’ll never stop watching a ton of baseball videos online.”

Caleb Durbin won’t know until after Spring Training 2024 where the Yankees will assign him. Could be Double-A, could be Triple-A. That’s a decision that’s out of his reliable infielder’s hands.

What’s in them: today. Another day to get better at baseball, to keep climbing.