Durbin made his Major League debut on April 24, 1907, for the Chicago Cubs.

Before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds on January 18, 1909 (together with Tom Downey for outfielder John Kane), Durbin had a batting average of only .250 in 14 games,[4] and on May 28, after appearing in only six games for Cincinnati, he was shipped to the Pittsburgh Pirates, doing little more than ride the bench before being released scarcely one month later.

[4] Durbin appeared only once (and for the final time in a Major League uniform), as a pinch-runner representing the potential tying run in the ninth inning of a 3–2 loss to Chicago, on June 30, 1909, in the first game ever played at Forbes Field.

[4] His burial is located at Saint Peters Cemetery in Kirkwood at St. Louis County in Missouri.

Durbin was memorialized as the protagonist in the fictional novel The Best Team Ever (2008) by Alan Alop and Doc Noel (ISBN 978-1935098027).