Updated April 2, 2026, 10:12 a.m. CT
Baseball analysis requires the rejection of the “small sample,” though no short-term stretch comes under a greater microscope during the regular season than what happens right at the beginning.
The Boston Red Sox are off to a 1-5 start, and former Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin is the last remaining qualified Major Leaguer without a hit, opening the year 0-for-18 with five strikeouts and one walk.
Needless to say, Red Sox fans have grown quickly annoyed with Durbin’s start. That chorus got even louder when one of the three players the Brewers received in the trade for Durbin, starting pitcher Kyle Harrison, delivered a smooth first outing against Tampa Bay on March 30.
Durbin isn’t the only player struggling on the Sox. Rising young star Roman Anthony is 5-for-22 with 11 strikeouts, though he did just hit his first homer of the year April 1, while regulars Trevor Story, Willson Contreras and Jarren Duran are all batting below .200 with one homer among them.
It goes without saying, but 18 at-bats is hardly a fair sample on which to judge.
Nor is Durbin alone across baseball. Nick Kurtz, the reigning American League Rookie of the Year for the Athletics who hit 36 homers in a monster 2025, is 1-for-17 with 11 strikeouts. Outfielders Kerry Carpenter (Detroit) and T.J. Friedl (Cincinnati) are each 2-for-22. The Brewers just faced Rays outfielder Cedric Mullins, who’s 1-for-21, and Kansas City veteran Marcell Ozuna is 1-for-20, all marks entering April 2.
On the other side of the offseason Durbin deal, David Hamilton is only 2-for-12 for the Brewers, but he’s walked four times, stolen four bases, struck out just twice and has driven in a pair of runs.
Minor-leaguer Shane Drohan allowed two runs on three hits in 3⅓ innings in his Class AAA Nashville debut March 31, with six strikeouts and four walks. Harrison allowed a leadoff homer in his outing but finished five innings having allowed just the one run on four hits, with eight strikeouts.
How have other 2025 Brewers fared with new teams to start the year?
Reliever Ángel Zerpa has looked great in three early games for the Brewers, allowing two hits and a walk with two strikeouts and no runs in three innings.
Nick Mears, sent with Isaac Collins to Kansas City in the offseason for Zerpa, has allowed just one hit in two innings, with three strikeouts.
Collins, who joined Durbin in receiving Rookie of the Year award votes last year, is only 2-for-12, but both hits are for extra bases, including a home run. He’s batting .167, but he still has a passable .333 on-base percentage with two walks and a hit-by-pitch.
Freddy Peralta was sharp April 1 in his second start for the New York Mets, although St. Louis ultimately won the game in walk-off fashion, 2-1, in 11 innings. Peralta allowed just one run on three hits with two walks in 5⅓ innings, with seven strikeouts on 92 pitches. That topped his first outing, when he allowed four earned runs on six hits but didn’t walk anybody and struck out seven over five innings in a Mets victory on Opening Day against Pittsburgh.
Tobias Myers, the other player sent from the Brewers to the Mets this offseason, has worked six innings of relief over three games, allowing one earned run on two hits with one walk and five strikeouts. He was the hard-luck loser in extras April 1, incurring that loss because Masyn Winn hit a two-out bloop single to score the automatic runner for the Cardinals. Myers worked a clean 10th, stranding the auto runner in that inning.
The players the Brewers received for Peralta and Myers have yet to find their groove. Brandon Sproat had a rough first start as a Brewer, allowing seven earned runs in three innings against the Chicago White Sox, with six hits and four walks. He somewhat infamously allowed a grand slam before recording an out, though the Brewers battled back to win.
Minor-league infielder Jett Williams is only 3-for-20 at Class AAA Nashville but has scored four runs and stolen three bases.
As former Brewers go, it’s hard to top what Joey Wiemer has done with Washington, leading the league with a .588 batting average and .682 on-base percentage. He tied an MLB record by reaching in his first 10 plate appearances of the season, and now he’s merely 10-for-17 with five walks, racking up two homers, a triple and four RBIs. Wiemer’s streak ended March 30 when he went 0-for-3 March 31, but he had two hits and a walk in his team’s extra-inning loss to Philadelphia on April 1.
Wiemer played for the Brewers in 2023 and 2024, traded at the 2024 deadline to Cincinnati.
