Colin Rea earns new deal after proving his value in 2025

Matt Marton - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 7 hours ago

When you saw the number of impending free agents the Cubs would have this season, you knew there would be a ton of decisions for this team to make. Entering Thursday, the Cubs were expected to go into the offseason with 27 of their 40-man roster spots filled, leaving the team with plenty of flexibility for the offseason.

One of the many questions surrounding the Cubs' roster was about Colin Rea, who not only came off a great 2025 season but was also one of the many players facing an option year for next season. Well, option year no more as Rea officially becomes the Cubs' first offseason acquisition as he and the Cubs have agreed to a new mini-deal to keep him with the Cubs in 2026 and possibly beyond.

While the deal is technically a one-year, $6.5 million contract for next season, eliminating the option year, the Cubs ultimately attached a new option year to that deal, making this a potential two-year, $13 million contract.

Based on his production alone last season, that becomes a steal of a deal, and with Shota Imanaga officially a free agent, Rea becomes one of the many options for the Cubs to plug into the back of their rotation for next season.

When you look at Rea's career, it has been an interesting yet frustrating one; nonetheless, he went from a promising young arm early in his career to an injury-prone pitcher struggling to find work. It wasn't until the 2022 season that Rea elected to go to the NPB, not only to try and stay healthy but also to figure things out as a pitcher, which wound up being the best decision he could've made for his career.

In his three years since returning from Japan, Rea has been the definition of a swing guy, appearing in 90 games the past three seasons (76 starts) and posting a 29-20 record in those seasons to bring his career mark to 37-27. With that comes a 4.41 career ERA; however, over the past three years, his ERA has hovered around 4.12 as he continues to improve with age.

Take the past two seasons, for example, where Rea has not only emerged as a reliable option but has turned himself into one of the better back-of-the-rotation arms in the game. One year after winning a career-high 12 games with the Brewers, Rea and the Cubs agreed to a one-year deal in the offseason with the plan of using him out of the pen as a swing guy.

Then came the injury to Javier Assad in Spring, which left the door open for Rea to compete for the No. 5 spot, only to fall short to Ben Brown by the end of Spring. All wasn't lost for Rea, who made five relief appearances early in the season before stepping into the rotation for Justin Steele, who wound up blowing out his elbow and was lost for the season.

It was at that moment that Rea showed the Cubs how valuable he could be, following up a career high in wins with his overall best season. Not only did Rea finish second on the team with 27 starts and just under 160 innings, but he also posted another double-digit win season by going 11-7 for the Cubs this season.

He achieved that while also posting a career-best 3.95 ERA, including a 1.23 ERA in September, as Rea was one of the Cubs' best arms down the stretch. Not known for velocity, Rea did see an uptick in his fastball in 2025, as he averaged 94.15 on his heater this year, compared to his career average of 93.04.

Along with that heater comes his steady dose of secondary pitches as Rea has six pitches to choose from at any point in the count. As good a repertoire as that may be, Rea has never been a strikeout guy, as his lack of velocity is a significant factor in that. Rea has also had some command issues in the past, which is what made him more of a sporadic success story as opposed to a consistent starter for most of his career.

Neither of those issues rang true in 2025 as Rea walked 44 batters compared to 127 strikeouts, while also proving he can pitch deeper into games by working the corners. He was one of the team's MVPs among pitchers this past season, and now that he is locked up for at least one more year, he does give the Cubs a massive insurance policy to play with heading into 2026.