The Brewers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Colin Rea. Fellow righty Janson Junk was optioned to Triple-A Nashville to open a spot on the active roster. To get Rea onto the 40-man, catcher Payton Henry was designated for assignment.
Rea, 32, has 36 games of scattered big league action with the Padres, Marlins, Cubs and Brewers. Most of that came back in 2015 and 2016, as he’s only tossed 20 innings in the bigs since then. He has a career ERA of 4.90 in 154 1/3 innings overall.
He spent last year pitching for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan, posting a 3.96 ERA over exactly 100 innings. He returned to North America this winter by signing a minor league deal with the Brewers. He’s already made a couple of starts in Triple-A, throwing seven innings without allowing an earned run.
The Brewers needed to address their rotation when Brandon Woodruff was placed on the injured list earlier this week with shoulder inflammation. They also intended to give their regular starters a breather by pushing them back a day, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, meaning they needed a couple of fresh arms. Junk was recalled to make a spot start yesterday but has now been quickly optioned to make room for Rea.
Henry, 26 in June, has spent most of his career in the Brewers’ organization, having been drafted by them in 2016. He was dealt to the Marlins in July of 2021 but then was traded back to Milwaukee in November of last year. He has 20 games of major league experience, all of it with the Marlins in between those two trades. He hit .186/.314/.209 in 51 plate appearances, which is a tiny sample but it tracks with his reputation as a glove-first catching prospect. He’s hit .200/.294/.267 in five Triple-A games so far this year.
The Brewers will now have one week to trade Henry or pass him through waivers. Catching depth tends to be in demand throughout the season given the high number of injuries at the position. Since Henry has options remaining, he doesn’t even need to be given an active roster spot. The Brewers now have just two catchers on their 40-man roster in William Contreras and Victor Caratini. They have some non-roster depth with players like Alex Jackson and Brian Navarreto, though Henry would join them if he clears waivers. He doesn’t have a previous career outright or three-plus years of service time, meaning he won’t have the right to reject an outright assignment.
Ran into Collin last fall at Applebees in countryside. He was there watching some sports games on tv and drinking a cold one. Sat next to him and he autographed a napkin and signed it “ here’s looking at you kid”. I bought him a burger with cheddar and we shared some fries together before parting. Can you believe he drives a Volkswagen bug ? You heard it here first
You saw Collin Rea out in public and you actually knew who Collin Rea was? AND you bothered to ask for an autograph?!?
Yes I sure did . We sat side by side and our hands touched a few times accidentally.
Don’t wash those blessed hands.
Will he be singing his Country Music songs over the Brewers’ PA system?
I’m partial to “Love, Me” & “One Boy, One Girl”.
Or will he just be singing the National Anthem and the 7th Inning Stretch for each Brewers game??
Best of luck with his pitching career
BUT
At 63 years old, what can we really expect??
Anyone remember Corey Hart?
Sure I do, he wears his sunglasses at night.
Sure do. I have a game used batting helmet of his. Granted, it was only worn in a spring training game lol. Same with my George Kottaras batting helmet, Prince Fiekder St Pattues Day hat and Mark Kotsay hat lol
He was a great Brewer and a really likeable guy
I met him at a fish fry in Adams, WI, at a haunted bar near Wisconsin Dells. I asked him if he’d go outside and have a catch. It was only an apple but we had fun just the same.
Wow …. Wow… man oh man wow !!! That’s totally awesome
The only player ever traded for Luis Castillo twice…
Closely related, rheas are large flightless birds native to South America and are distant relatives to the ostrich, emu, and other rarer birds such as the M. Fidrychis as well as the G. Birdis, P. Byrdis and on with the hawk A. Dawsonis…
and K. Harrelsonis, the Stearnes Turkey, the Yount Robin, the Bell Jay, the Aaron Crow, and the Chicken Hawk but beware the Chicken wolf and chicken man
Some of the strangest comments I’ve read on this site, and that is really saying something. It’s not a full moon, so I have to chalk it up to spring fever…
I wish they were at least funny comments.
Well you can’t please all of the people all of the time
AJ Preller got busted for the Rea trade… Doh!
AJ Preller plays pickup basketball, often with unbridled passion. Yet, he’s but a wee fella. I have pondered often upon that apparent dichotomy.
Colin Rea’s surname rhymes with “ray” yet is dichotomously spelled as if it rhymes with “sea”. Why is he not a spokesperson for Sea-Ray?
I have not much pondered over any of that, at least not nearly as long as I have over the Milwaukee Brewers somehow being in the National League while the Houston Astros inexplicably find themselves in the American League.
Rosebud. An answer and a question all presented within that one word. What was that about the moon’s status?
Brewers being in the NL and Astros being in the AL isn’t that hard to figure out. The NL central had 6 teams for the longest time. While the AL west had 4. Made no sense. Then finally they decided to to move a team over. Which is further west, Milwaukee or Houston? Houston, therefore they got moved. Ponder no more.