The Cubs have hammered out a restructured deal with right-hander Colin Rea, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams. It’s 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.
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’s 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.
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 Justin Steele. 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.
It’s 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 threw more innings for Milwaukee over that two-year stretch. Rea’s flexibility has clearly endeared him to Craig Counsell, who managed him with the Brewers in 2023 and this year with Chicago.
Second-year righty Cade Horton projects as the team’s top starter at the moment. They could get Steele back at some point in the first half. Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon and Rea are in the mix at the middle to back end. Javier Assad, Jordan Wicks and Ben Brown could compete for back-end spots (though the Cubs might commit to Brown as a full-time reliever sooner than later).
It’s 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’s all the more true after they declined their three-year option on Shota Imanaga. While there’s 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.
The Cubs opened the ’25 season with a player payroll just under $193MM. RosterResource projects them around $154MM, including arbitration estimates, going into next season. They’re more than $70MM shy of the luxury tax threshold. The Rea extension nearly closes the book on the team’s option decisions. Their only remaining one is a $10MM mutual option for Justin Turner. The Cubs will easily decline their end in favor of a $2MM buyout.
Image courtesy of Michael McLoone, Imagn Images.
No-brainer here. Not gonna light the world on fire, but a solid guy to have at that price. Plenty of work to do on the North Side with that staff, but I’m good with this start.
He saved their bacon when Steele went down and for the most part, exceeded expectations. It wasn’t a big move last offseason, but he ended up being a key to them reaching the playoffs. Solid move by Hoyer.
Fine by me. Hopefully he ends up nothing more than their number 5 starter, but he showed if necessary he can be relied on for a little more.
Off-season’s complete Cubs fans. Great job.
Are you the kind of person who will say that for every signing (even minor ones) over the whole off-season?
Witty….there are dozens of them…
Cubs stories keep them at the keyboard.
Same with my Cards. Can’t wait to hear the complaining about Arenado/Gray articles.
Steelers-This is the real reason there are 200 comments for Cubs articles. 100 of them are like this.
Off-season’s complete! Stove is hot! World series here we come! Put a gun in my mouth. Playoffs! Who needs Tucker!
Solid move can never have enough pitching depth.
He was a bargain for them over the regular season grind and with so many SPs around MLB getting hurt. Despite his age, surprised agent didn’t negotiate for around 10mil club option in ’27 the way even “innings eaters” get paid.
Glad Hoyer is starting to appreciate the whole club Option side of things instead of the NMC options he hands out like Tic Tacs. He gives out a small raise for a job well done and adds another year possibly for a 35 year old guy is good value. I like it and Turner’s decision shouldn’t be that hard to make and should have been done already which scares me that he’s thinking about keeping him. Please don’t. With Suzuki and Happs last year of NMC over and it’s also the last year of Taillons limited NMC they’ll all be off the books except for Swansons and that isn’t moving anywhere anyway.
Has any team in the last twenty years had five starters that started at least 30 games and threw a minimum of 150 innings? So called swing men are necessary in today’s game. Cubs are cheap so he will probably line up as the fifth starter. Ownership had the chance to be in the series this year but blew it at the deadline.
I’ll bite. Who should they have brought in that would have taken them to the Series? And this is without knowing Cade Horton would get hurt.
What deadline deal did they pass on that would have put them in the World Series?
Rae has mostly bumped along at replacement level for his career, but the last three seasons have been a little on the plus side. Not a big commitment by the Cubs, so things can’t go too wrong.
It’s nice to know that they are $70mm under the tax threshold. It would be even better to know how much they are under their projected budget.
Many teams do not use the tax threshold as their budget. Some big markets ignore it. Some small markets can’t come close. Some in the middle have a range in-between. With all the projections on how much each FA is likely to get, I would expect it would be simpler for MLBTR to project payroll levels for each team.
The Cubs do. The Tax is their upper limit. The dumb thing they did was going over the Tax by like a million dollars that year. If you’re going to break the Tax why do it by like a million bucks? Splurge and push all your chips in with rentals and then reset.
If there have been any credible reports that the front office can spend up to the first CBT threshold, I’ve missed them.
It was a mistake that should have gotten Hoyer fired.
Lolcub$
After Rhea’s performance in 2025, it was an obvious choice to pick up his $6 million option. It looks like the team gave him a slight raise, with the option for another affordable season afterward. He’ll likely be a swingman and injury insurance once again, but he’s a capable arm that can step in as needed. And, even at 35, there’s still slight upside for him to get better if he stays strong/healthy.
I can’t believe that he’s 35 already, I am getting old.
Good deal for a versatile guy who is in CC’s circle of trust as a swing man.
Good, he was pretty good and the price is affordable. Need a starter especially now that Shota is a free agent.