BOSTON — On Feb. 9, shortly before pitchers and catchers were due to report to Spring Training, the Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers swung a six-player trade that was not a blockbuster. It has turned out to be one of the most impactful moves of the offseason. With fewer than three weeks to go in the regular season, both teams are sailing toward October among the best in baseball, and the six players dealt have combined for 8.4 WAR entering play on Tuesday, using Baseball Reference's version of the statistic.
Boston received INF Caleb Durbin, INF Andruw Monasterio, INF Anthony Seigler and a Competitive Balance Round B Draft pick, while Milwaukee received LHP Kyle Harrison, INF David Hamilton and LHP prospect Shane Drohan. Durbin, 26, was an NL Rookie of the Year Award finalist with the Brewers in 2025 and seemed an ideal fit to slide into the void at third base left by Alex Bregman's free-agency departure. After a slow start, he has been one of Boston's best hitters for the past three-and-a-half months, slashing .283/.366/.434 with a 125 wRC+ since June 1 after a trip to a private hitting coach in mid-May, and he is in the running to win a Gold Glove Award. Monasterio and Seigler emerged as unlikely spark plugs behind Boston's improbable midyear renaissance while Trevor Story, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Roman Anthony spent much of the summer on the injured list.
Harrison spent much of last summer at Triple-A Worcester after being acquired by the Red Sox as part of the return haul from the Giants for Rafael Devers. Just two years earlier the left-hander was the No. 23 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, but he pitched to a 4.39 ERA in 42 games (37 starts) through his first three MLB seasons. This year he owns a 3.66 ERA with 134 strikeouts in 110 2/3 innings despite recent struggles, solidifying Milwaukee's rotation behind Jacob Misiorowski despite injuries to Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester. He has flourished with his four-seam fastball — a pitch the Red Sox de-emphasized in favor of a cutter, but one Milwaukee has encouraged him to throw.
Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said in February that Drohan was a "very big part" of the deal, and he has posted a 4.09 ERA while logging 114 1/3 innings in a versatile swingman and spot starter role, optimizing a six-pitch mix. Hamilton has been the most valuable piece of the deal for Milwaukee, at least according to bWAR, fitting the classic Brewers archetype with elite baserunning and a pesky approach in the box that makes up for his undersized stature.
All six players have contributed in the Majors this season, which is exceptionally rare. Since 2009, there have been just 29 trades featuring at least five MLB players, defined as someone who played in the big leagues in the season immediately following the trade, and the last two-team deal to feature six or more MLB players was the high-profile swap that sent Juan Soto from the Padres to the Yankees in December 2023. Since 2009, only five other two-team deals involving at least five MLB players have generated that much WAR the next season, led by the Soto deal at 14.6 WAR and the Nov. 23, 2016 Mariners-Diamondbacks deal at 11.3 WAR, and with three weeks to go it is not unrealistic that the Red Sox-Brewers swap winds up as the third-most valuable on that list.