Now the Milwaukee Brewers' Third Starter, Colin Rea is Ready for the Job

[Matthew Trueblood]

Opportunity is everywhere in the Milwaukee Brewers rotation this spring. For one hurler, though, claiming a place in that group is just about building upon the success he found last year--and the weapon he needs to do that is already in his arsenal.

Image courtesy of © Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Last season was a mixed bag for Colin Rea, but his value far exceeded that suggested by his raw numbers. Despite a 4.55 ERA and unimpressive rates of strikeouts and home runs allowed, Rea had 13 Game Scores of 50 or higher in his 22 starts, and three of his four relief outings were successful, too.

Still, there were those pesky problems. Rea's inflated ERA came from far too many long balls, and he didn't get lefties out with nearly the requisite consistency. 

Rea developed a nice sweeper, and he came into some better velocity. As he hurtles toward his 34th birthday, though, he needs a more balanced and deeper repertoire to achieve better results against opposite-handed hitters. As has already been reported this spring, he's hoping that a new grip on his splitter can be the key.

"It’s kind of in the middle of a true fork and a split; somewhere in the middle," Rea said Friday in Maryvale. "The biggest thing I’m looking for is just a speed differential from my fastball. If I can get some run and some vertical drop to it, that’d be good, but I just need a more consistent change of pace."

That looked to be working well for Rea in his simulated game this week, and would, indeed, be pivotal for him. Last year, batters whiffed on just 20 percent of their swings against the splitter. When they hit it, they hit it fairly hard, and it didn't have a great ground-ball rate. Worse, Rea struggled to throw it in competitive locations, and it didn't earn a sufficient chase rate. Already, he's looking better in these areas this spring.

Colin notches a strikeout in his sim game today. Says he’s feeling more confident about getting lefties out this year, with his new splitter and better feel for creating depth on his sweeper. More coming @brewer_fanatic today. pic.twitter.com/hsWwNYs5sR

— Matthew Trueblood (@MATrueblood) March 1, 2024

"A changeup was always a tough pitch for me to feel, but the games last year when it was good, it made everything else better," Rea said. "So it was one of those things where I needed to figure out a consistent grip, and so far this has been pretty good."

As you can discern in reading those quotes, Rea isn't planning to rebuild his varied repertoire around the splitter. It's just a tweak designed to help him become more unpredictable. He knows that he'll also need better execution of his existing, largely unaltered offerings, in order to better neutralize lefties. One key will be greater depth on his sweeper, a pitch that became a crucial part of his attack last year.

"It’s more of a thought," Rea said of manipulating that pitch for more depth. "If I want to throw it backfoot to lefties, I just try to get on top of it a little bit more. If I’m throwing it to righties, away, I’m more on the side of it—almost underneath it, so it comes across.

I want that ride and sweep to righties. I think that plays a little bit better, depending on the swing."

That's all pretty similar to what Bryse Wilson said earlier this week about his cutter. For Wilson, the cutter is a breaking ball, so it makes sense that he and Rea conceptualize that subtle but essential manipulation to change shape in the same way. Also like Wilson, Rea has a cutter that behaves more like a breaking ball than like his heat, but it was the sweeper that yielded the best results for him last year.

Of course, everything about Rea's stuff will play better if he sustains the increase in velocity he enjoyed in 2023. Entering his mid-30s, he threw harder than ever. That's a recipe for success, and one Rea says came from finding balance between the many possible objectives a pitcher can elect to pursue during offseason conditioning.

"I think the training I started to do a couple years ago in the offseason helped my mobility get back a little bit.," Rea said. "There were some years in there where I just wanted to get as strong as possible, and I kind of lost the mobility, so I went backwards. I didn’t lift as heavy, but gained range of motion."

As you might expect of a journeyman who has found such a secure opportunity so late in his pro career, Rea can often be spotted carefully maintaining the feel of what works in the clubhouse. It's not unusual to see players practicing some aspect of their swing or their throwing motion near their lockers, but Rea does it more than anyone. He's often spinning a ball in his hands, and conversations with teammates frequently involve exaggerated examples of the mechanical cues he's talking about or searching for. Some of his improved power comes simply from better physical efficiency,

"It’s also just constantly working with my mechanics here," Rea said. "And then I went to Driveline and did some stuff with them, got on a routine with the weighted balls. It’s just a combination of things."

Last season, Rea was a semi-emergency fill-in and a bit of a bonus find. This year, he's an integral part of their pitching plan. Thus, they need to hope that his combination of new skills and his boosted power will have the desired effects, immediately.

Research assistance provided by TruMedia.

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[eddiemathews]

I'm wait and see on Rea. It almost feels like a reliever situation to me...not confident from one year to the next. I guess that's probably true of anyone that hasn't established several good seasons.