Tiny broken bones and Caleb Durbin

So over winter. We’re on our third straight week with snow on the ground here in NYC. But temps are finally climbing above freezing and pitchers and catchers have reported to camp so things are heating up.

Scroll for more on the tiny bone that everyone is breaking, a update on the Devers trade tree, and wiffleball bat playtesting. Thoughts? As always just mash that reply button.

— Team TSN

Injury updates started flooding the timeline as soon as players reported to camp this week.

Braves pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach has been shelved for the foreseeable future with elbow inflammation. Anthony Santander is expected to miss most of the season after shoulder surgery.

And then Wednesday hit.

Francisco Lindor. Corbin Carroll. Jackson Holliday. All dealing with fractured hamate bones — an injury that typically stems from repeated pressure in the non-dominant hand, right where the knob of the bat rests.

All of a sudden, everyone’s googling wrist anatomy.

What is it: The hamate is a small, hook-shaped bone on the pinky side of your wrist. For hitters, it sits right where the bat rests in the bottom hand. Repeated vibration—especially on jam shots—can stress that hook until it fractures. It’s common in baseball and golf. Surgery usually involves removing the fractured hook entirely. Yes… they just take it out.

Recovery time: The typical timeline is six to eight weeks, but that’s just to return to play. Regaining full grip strength and power can often take longer. Mets catcher Francisco Álvarez dealt with this last season, and while he returned within that given window, the power lagged behind a bit. You can swing, you can make contact. But the pop often takes a bit of time to come back.

An epidemic or weird coincidence? It feels like half the league broke the same bone overnight. In reality, this injury isn’t new. It just clusters. Spring training ramps up swing volume quickly. More swings mean more vibration. More vibration means more stress on that tiny hook-shaped bone.

The bigger takeaway: When these guys come back and the power numbers dip for a month, it’s not necessarily rust. It’s grip strength. It’s leverage. It’s baseball physics.

Kyle Harrison, the key piece the Red Sox got back in last season’s blockbuster Devers trade, was just flipped to Milwaukee for Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler, and a future draft pick. What started as a franchise-defining move has quietly morphed into one of the more peculiar trade trees in recent memory.

After dealing Devers and losing Alex Bregman, Boston suddenly had a crater at third base. The pivot? Caleb Durbin, the NL Rookie of the Year third-place finisher and one of the more competitive young infielders in the game.

Talkin’ Durbin: Durbin plays like someone who assumes his job can be taken at any moment. Speed. Contact. Defense. Energy. Two years ago he was an under-the-radar name in the Yankees’ system, until he tore up the Arizona Fall League and forced the league to notice. The Yankees flipped that momentum (plus Nestor Cortes) to land Devin Williams. That move didn’t pay off in the Bronx, especially because Durbin’s stock never stopped rising.

A surprising shift: Around the league, this one raised eyebrows. Durbin felt like a classic Brewers piece, the type of player Milwaukee develops, plugs in, and builds around. But the Brewers have a surplus of young infielders, and the Red Sox had urgency. Need met depth. A deal got done.

Kyle Harrison upside: If there’s one organization that consistently squeezes value out of pitching talent, it’s Milwaukee. Enter Harrison, along with Shane Drohan, a deceptive power lefty. After moving on from ace Freddy Peralta, the Brewers aren’t rebuilding. They’re retooling, betting their pitching infrastructure can unlock another level.

Who won? It might be too early to tell. Boston gets immediate stability at third. Milwaukee gets another arm for the lab. And the Devers trade tree keeps growing, with just one piece left with the Sox in Jose Bello.