Cubs, Colin Rea Agree to Restructured One-Year Deal
CI had heard a while back that Colin Rea’s return was likely, and we got confirmation of that this morning from MLBTR’s Steve Adams. It’s a restructured deal that will pay the righty swingman $6.5 million in 2026 with a club option for the same amount in 2027. The $5 million deal Rea signed last offseason carried a $6 million club option with a $750,000 buyout, so he gets a little more money and the Cubs get a relatively cheap insurance plan.
That was the idea last season as well, though many — present company included — were a little skeptical of it at the time. Rea proved to be worth the modest deal, stepping in to replace Justin Steele in the rotation and ending up as one of the club’s more reliable postseason options. Even if that was as much about attrition as his own performance, it makes sense to run it back with Rea.
The well-traveled righty has now logged at least 124.2 innings in each of the last three seasons, 20 more than he’d ever pitched in any big-league season. He did, however, toss 148 innings for the Iowa Cubs in 2019. Rea had a brief stint in Chicago during the COVID season, then headed to Japan before joining the Brewers at the end of the 2021 campaign. He went back to Japan in ’22, then returned to Milwaukee for two seasons prior to signing with the Cubs.
Rea has defied traditional aging curves by improving his fastball over time, and he sat at a career-best 93.8 mph last season. His varied pitch mix allowed him to find success despite a lack of elite stuff, leading to his lowest ERA (3.95) and highest fWAR (1.9) over parts of seven MLB seasons. This signing should not be viewed as Jed Hoyer going the cheap route in filling out the rotation, but as an inexpensive safety net for moves that (fingers crossed) will come later in the offseason.
Ed. note: As I have often done in the past, I am compelled to mention that Rea is the reason the Padres were exposed for keeping two sets of medical records on their players: one real and one clean. He was traded by the Pads to the Marlins at the deadline in 2016, only to suffer a torn UCL and be returned to San Diego a few days later. Also involved in the deal were Josh Naylor and former Cub Andrew Cashner, the latter of whom went to the Padres as part of the return for Anthony Rizzo.
