Brewers' tough awards season continues, Wisconsin native bests Durbin for major award

Despite holding the best record in MLB during the 2025 regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers came up empty in both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards departments. Neither Brice Turang nor Sal Frelick was able to defend their 2024 Gold Glove Awards, and Turang, William Contreras, and Christian Yelich were all victims of tough competition when it came to the 2025 Silver Slugger Awards.

On Monday night, the Brew Crew had another shot to take home an end-of-the-season award, with their talented rookie third baseman, Caleb Durbin, being a finalist for the NL Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, Durbin was out-voted by Wisconsin-native Drake Baldwin of the Atlanta Braves for the league's top rookie award, continuing the Brewers' winless streak when it comes to MLB's major end-of-the-year awards for the 2025 season.

Caleb Durbin bested by Wisconsin native Drake Baldwin for 2025 NL Rookie of the Year Award

Baldwin, a graduate of Madison West High School in the state's capital, was more than deserving of the award after collecting 3.3 bWAR and posting a 126 OPS+ in his rookie campaign, making Durbin's loss a little easier to stomach. Additionally, just because Durbin won't be adding any hardware to his trophy case this offseason, doesn't mean his rookie season in Milwaukee wasn't highly successful.

After varied expectations coming into the season, Durbin posted a solid slash line of .256/.334/.387 with 11 homers and 25 doubles in 136 games. Defensively, Durbin essentially played a new position in 2025, after all of his college career was spent at shortstop and a majority of his minor league innings came at second base, and he produced an impressive five Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and two Outs Above Average (OAA) at the position.

Not only did the Brewers have a finalist in Durbin, who ultimately came in third place for the award behind the aforementioned Baldwin and the Chicago Cubs' Cade Horton, but three of their other rookies received recognition during the voting process. As reported on MLB.com, outfielder Isaac Collins, who turned in an excellent rookie season on both sides of the ball, finished in 4th place, early-season rotation staple and postseason bullpen weapon Chad Patrick finished in 7th place, and rookie All-Star Jacob Misiorowski finished in 11th place after a debut season to remember.

Even still, Baldwin's deserved win last night means the Brewers are still without a major end-of-the-season award. That could, however, change this evening when MLB announces the winners of this year's Manager of the Year Awards. Brewers' skipper Pat Murphy, who ironically doesn't care much about individual accolades, is the frontrunner to take home the NL award for the second consecutive season, something a manager has never done in his first full two seasons at the helm.