Brewers–Red Sox Trade Breakdown: Real-Life Impact and Fantasy Baseball Fallout

A couple big MLB transactions took place on Monday. I'll start with the trade made between the Brewers and Red Sox, breaking things down from a real world and fantasy baseball perspective.

Check back in a bit for a breakdown of the Marcell Ozuna signing with the Pirates, and the Paul Goldschmidt re-signing with the Yankees over the weekend.

For the latest player updates, be sure to head to FantasySP to utilize the real-time player news engine for all sports. The player news engine is the most robust and fastest player news system in fantasy sports. Signing up for a FantasySP membership can help you track all your fantasy players.

Trade Details and Stats

Milwaukee sent Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler to Boston for Kyle Harrison, Shane Drohan and David Hamilton. Boston also got a competitive balance draft pick (No. 67 overall) in the deal.

Durbin was traded from the Yankees to the Brewers last year, so now he's right back in the AL East. Across 136 big league games last season, Durbin had a .256 average and .334 on-base percentage.

Durbin had 114 total hits, including 11 homers and 25 doubles. He also had 53 RBIs, 60 runs scored, 18 stolen bases, 30 walks and 50 strikeouts over 506 plate appearances. He mostly played third base, but also played some shortstop, and probably could slide to second base too.

Monasterio can play all over the field too, playing first, second and third base, shortstop and left field last year. He is more of a bench/depth guy, and got in 68 games last season.

He had a .270 average and .319 OBP. Monasterio has a .250 average and .321 OBP over 219 games and 592 plate appearances in his three-year big league career. 

Seigler made the big leagues for the first time in 2025. He got in 34 games and had 73 plate appearances. Seigler had a .194 average and .292 OBP, while playing at third base and a little first base.

Harrison is a 24-year-old pitcher who will be on his third big league team since debuting in 2023. He was traded from San Francisco to Boston last season in the Rafael Devers deal.

Harrison has a 4.39 earned run average over 194 2/3 innings in the big leagues over his three years. He's made 37 starts over 42 total appearances, and has 191 strikeouts along the way.

Hamilton is another depth guy who can play around the field, playing second or shortstop primarily, plus a little third base. Over 204 total games and 550 plate appearances, Hamilton had a .222 average and .283 OBP.

Drohan has yet to make his big league debut and is a 27-year-old left-handed pitcher. In five seasons of minor league ball, Drohan has a 4.29 ERA over 411 2/3 innings, while punching out 472 batters.

Outlook for the Red Sox

Being a Brewers' fan, it pains me to say I think the Red Sox won this deal. They got a starting third baseman out of things, plus a draft pick, on top of two depth options.

Durbin is projected to be the starting second baseman for Boston, and hitting in the No. 8 slot. That's where he was hitting around with Milwaukee, so a similar output to 2025 seems like a fair expectation for Durbin with Boston.

Roman Anthony, Trevor Story, Jarren Duran, Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, Carlos Narvaez and Ceddanne Rafaela are the other projected daily starters for Boston. Marcelo Mayer and Romy Gonzalez are in a projected platoon at third base.

Connor Wong is the backup catcher, while Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Masataka Yoshida are the other projected bench players, along with whoever sits in the projected platoon.

Boston is pretty top heavy with Anthony, Story, Durran, Contreras and Abreu. Starting with Abreu, the lineup starts to taper off, but the bottom five guys in the lineup could all turn into decent fantasy assets with regular playing time and decent production.

Durbin will be a deep-league fantasy asset to kick off the 2026 season, but he could become a standard league threat in time. The trade really doesn't impact anyone, as Hamilton was the projected starter at second base before the deal.

Kiner-Falefa could push Durbin for playing time, and Durbin could also move back to third base if the projected platoon flops. Durbin could also move over to shortstop if Story is injured again.

I like Durbin over Hamilton, so I think the trade is a slight boost for the bottom of the order, and the hitters before and after Durbin. He could be a good bottom-of-the-order guy, turning the table over for the top of the order.

I don't see Monasterio or Seigler being big fantasy assets unless a couple infielders are banged up in Boston. They are both off the fantasy radar.

Outlook for the Brewers

While I prefer Durbin over Hamilton, the deal could produce more big league talent for Milwaukee for the coming season.

Hamilton is a projected bench bat in Milwaukee, and for now, Harrison and Drohan are projected to open the year in Triple-A.

Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, William Contreras, Christian Yelich, Andrew Vaughn, Sal Frelick, Joey Ortiz and Jett Williams are the projected daily starters, with Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins in a projected platoon.

Reese McGuire is the projected backup catcher, with Jake Bauers, Hamilton and the other half of the projected platoon as the other bench guys.

Turang is the second baseman, and will be in the lineup in some fashion. He could move to shortstop.

Ortiz played shortstop last year, but was a third baseman before that. Ortiz is now projected to play third base, with Williams (who was acquired when Milwaukee shipped out Freddy Peralta) the starting shortstop. Trading away three big league infielders means Milwaukee must like someone, or are going to make another move. Ortiz really struggled last year, so it's risky to have a rookie (Williams) at shortstop next to him.

Hamilton will be a starting option to kick off the season. I don't think the projected lineup is set in stone by any means, so this might be a situation to track throughout the preseason.

Moving on from Durbin opens a starting spot though, so Ortiz, Hamilton and Williams could be battling for two starting spots. Milwaukee could also believe that a prospect like Brock Wilken or Cooper Pratt is ready for the big leagues, or maybe even a high-end guy like Jesus Made.

This is definitely a situation I'll be watching throughout spring training.

The Brewers' rotation is really strong already, so getting Harrison and Drohan seems like they are adding at a position of strength already.

Brandon Woodruff, Jacob Misiorowski, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick and Logan Henderson are the projected starting rotation. DL Hall, Brandon Sproat, Robert Gasser, Coleman Crow and Carlos Rodriguez are other rotation options outside Harrison and Drohan, and more pitching prospects are possibilities too.

Milwaukee has turned a lot of pitchers into good major leaguers, so I like the trade for both Harrison and Drohan. Harrison is much more likely to be a big league piece in 2026, so he's the one to really be keeping an eye on.

But as for the trade at a glance, none of the Brewers acquired are more than deep-league fantasy assets right now, and really, I don't see the point of drafting any of them for now. Spring training should give us a clue as to how the Brewers plan to proceed in the infield, and with their rotation, so be watching that as the regular season nears.