{"id":266177,"date":"2025-11-06T19:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/266177\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T19:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T19:29:08","slug":"cubs-sign-colin-rea-to-one-year-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/266177\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Sign Colin Rea To One-Year Extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

11:05am:\u00a0The Cubs have officially announced Rea\u2019s contract. MLB.com\u2019s Jordan Bastian<\/a> broke down the contract structure, noting that Rea will earn $5.5MM in 2026 with a $1MM buyout on a $7.5MM club option.<\/p>\n

7:24am: The Cubs have hammered out a restructured deal with right-hander\u00a0Colin Rea<\/a>, reports MLBTR\u2019s Steve Adams. It\u2019s a $6.5MM guarantee that includes a club option for the 2027 season and maxes out at $13MM over two years if that option is exercised. Rea is represented by Joe Speed.<\/p>\n

Chicago had previously held a $6MM option or a $750K buyout for the upcoming season. The new deal supersedes the buyout, so Rea technically picks up $5.75MM in new money. That\u2019s more than the $5.25MM difference between the option price and the buyout. Rea gets an extra $500K overall, while the Cubs secure an extra year of team control.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Rea is coming off a solid season. He signed as a swingman and was pressed into the rotation by the middle of April because of the season-ending injury to\u00a0Justin Steele<\/a>. Rea was generally good for 5-6 competitive innings each time out. He turned in a 3.95 earned run average while ranking second on the team with 159 1\/3 innings. Rea had a pedestrian 19.2% strikeout rate but he rarely issues free passes and did a decent job keeping the ball in the yard.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s the third straight season in which Rea has been a capable fifth\/sixth starter. He spent the 2023-24 campaigns with the Brewers, combining for a 4.40 ERA with a near-20% strikeout percentage in a little less than 300 innings. Only Freddy Peralta<\/a> threw more innings for Milwaukee over that two-year stretch. Rea\u2019s flexibility has clearly endeared him to Craig Counsell, who managed him with the Brewers in 2023 and this year with Chicago.<\/p>\n

Second-year righty Cade Horton<\/a> projects as the team\u2019s top starter at the moment. They could get Steele back at some point in the first half.\u00a0Matthew Boyd<\/a>, Jameson Taillon<\/a> and Rea are in the mix at the middle to back end. Javier Assad<\/a>,\u00a0Jordan Wicks<\/a> and\u00a0Ben Brown<\/a> could compete for back-end spots (though the Cubs might commit to Brown as a full-time reliever sooner than later).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clearly a light group for a playoff team. The Cubs figure to take a swing for at least a #2 or high-end #3 arm via trade or free agency. That\u2019s all the more true after they declined<\/a> their three-year option on Shota Imanaga<\/a>. While there\u2019s a slim chance Imanaga returns if the Cubs make him a qualifying offer, that decision seems to signal that the Cubs are aiming higher in their rotation targets.<\/p>\n

The Cubs opened the \u201925 season with a player payroll just under $193MM. RosterResource<\/a> projects them around $154MM, including arbitration estimates, going into next season. They\u2019re more than $70MM shy of the luxury tax threshold. The Rea extension nearly closes the book on the team\u2019s option decisions. Their only remaining one is a $10MM mutual option for Justin Turner<\/a>. The Cubs will easily decline their end in favor of a $2MM buyout.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"11:05am:\u00a0The Cubs have officially announced Rea\u2019s contract. MLB.com\u2019s Jordan Bastian broke down the contract structure, noting that Rea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,122697,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-266177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-colin-rea","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}