CINCINNATI, Ohio — On Thursday morning, Caleb Durbin sat alone in the sun-soaked visitors dugout at Great American Ballpark and took in the moment.

It wasn’t his first time at the Reds’ ballpark. But he was hours away from making not only his first Opening Day start, but his Boston Red Sox debut.

“It’s up there (with my MLB debut), especially with a new team and it being the Boston Red Sox,” Durbin told the Herald of what Thursday meant to him. “You put it all in perspective on how cool it really is to suit up for a team like the Red Sox on Opening Day. I’m trying to soak it all up as much as I can.”

It was a rather lackluster debut for Durbin, who went 0-for-3 with a walk and had an error at third base, but still go to celebrate a 3-0 win for the Red Sox.

After being traded from the Milwaukee Brewers early in spring training, Durbin quickly realized there was something different about being a Red Sox. Walking into camp in Fort Myers each day, he stared up at the “Legendary” banner, which stretches several feet long across from the clubhouse and features former Red Sox stars from long before Durbin’s time, as well as retired stars who come to camp each year and work with the players, like Jim Rice and David Ortiz.

“It’s the first time I’ve experienced it,” Durbin, who was in the New York Yankees system before the Brewers. “That’s kind of the aura of the Red Sox, and the history involved.

“You look at the Red Sox from an outside perspective, which I have for my entire life up to this point, and it’s the Boston Red Sox. Like, there’s so much respect associated with the name and the organization, and then you are now a part of it, and it’s a dream come true. Because you grow up just admiring all the players in a Red Sox uniform, and it’s weird to say that I’m now one of the players that gets to suit up in a Red Sox uniform.”

The immensity of joining the franchise meant that choosing a jersey number wasn’t something Durbin took lightly. But after wearing No. 17 throughout camp, he wanted to switch to a single digit.

“I was No. 50 in Low-A and that felt wrong, it felt off,” Durbin said. “But the rest of the levels (of the minor leagues) I was single digit and I played better those levels.”

Options were limited, though, and with good reason. His top choice, No. 3, belongs to Ceddanne Rafaela, and Nos. 1 (Bobby Doerr), 4 (Joe Cronin), 6 (Johnny Pesky), 8 (Carl Yastrzemski) and 9 (Ted Williams) were retired long ago.

But Durbin thought No. 5 might bring him good luck, the way it had for another infielder who’d become a Red Sox legend: Nomar Garciaparra. Durbin is the 10th player to wear the number since Garciaparra’s time with the organization came to a close in 2004.

“I think you look up and down at all the numbers, there’s some Red Sox legend that has worn (it),” Durbin said, “but Nomar is one of the best to do it in a Red Sox uniform, so that’s definitely cool for me to wear the same number as him.”

Durbin is also eager to prove himself worthy of joining the ranks of Red Sox “Dirt Dogs,” the scrappiest, highest-effort players who gave their all every time they stepped on the field. Players like Trot Nixon and Durbin’s personal hero, Dustin Pedroia. Getting a text from Pedroia was “pretty incredible,” as was spending time with Ortiz when the Hall of Fame slugger made his annual return visit to Red Sox camp.

“You just see all the history involved with the Boston Red Sox, and he was a guy that was on TV every day when I was growing up, for a good part of my life, and one of the best players in the big leagues,” Durbin said of Ortiz. “So to be rubbing elbows with him on a daily basis in spring training. It’s really cool.

“But it’s also important, because it gets you kind of settled into the culture, and lets you know that, ‘OK I’m a part of this now. I don’t have to be so shell-shocked looking at these guys.’ They’re here to help us. And I’m a part of something really cool that’s been built over a long period of time.”