{"id":617219,"date":"2026-03-10T18:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/617219\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:19:15","slug":"red-sox-news-links-caleb-durbin-is-your-third-baseman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/617219\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox News & Links: Caleb Durbin is your third baseman"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the extent that there ever was any intrigue about whether Caleb Durbin, Marcelo Mayer, or someone else would be playing third base for the 2026 Red Sox, you can put that intrigue to bed. Alex Cora, while going out of his way to clarify that he wasn\u2019t announcing anything official, basically made it official: \u201cCaleb, he\u2019s playing third base again. We\u2019ll probably decide that next week. But I feel very comfortable with him at third base. Honestly, (the intrigue) is more for (reporters). It\u2019s kind of like, \u2018What are we going to do?\u2019 Five (straight) days of playing third base. He played the whole season\u2026 Like, what are we looking for? Two ground balls in spring training. You know, so…\u201d Got it, Alex, thanks for the update! (Sean McAdam, MassLive)<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite being ready to give the third base position to Durbin, the Red Sox are still not ready to give second base to Marcelo Mayer. What is it that the Sox brass is still waiting to see from him? Better swing decisions. (Alex Speier, Boston Globe)<\/a><\/p>\n

If Mayer doesn\u2019t get the opening day job, we\u2019ll probably be looking at Isiah Kiner-Falefa pairing up with Trevor Story up the middle. But Nick Sogard is in the conversation as well, and he has the mental advantage of already knowing what it feels like to fight for a roster spot. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)<\/a><\/p>\n

Someone who won\u2019t be competing for a roster spot this spring, though, is Triston Casas. Yesterday, he made it official that he will not be healthy enough to participate in any Grapefruit League games:<\/p>\n

Casas\u2019s power bat will be missed. Though it won\u2019t be missed quite as much if Masataka Yoshida and Jarren Duran continue performing the way they are right now in the World Baseball Classic. The two outfielders\/DHs have arguably been the best performers in the tournament right now, as the Red Sox organization as a whole is putting on a show. (Ian Browne, MLB.com)<\/a><\/p>\n

Garrett Crochet, though, still doesn\u2019t regret his decision to decline the invitation to play for Team USA. He\u2019s focused on getting his mechanics right for the regular season. (Peter Abraham, Boston Globe)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the extent that there ever was any intrigue about whether Caleb Durbin, Marcelo Mayer, or someone else…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,15409,2543],"class_list":["post-617219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-mlb","tag-red-sox","tag-red-sox-news","tag-redsox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116206264040145048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}