The Milwaukee Brewers have put right-handed pitcher Colin Rea on waivers according to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Cincinnati, who has lost both Nick Martinez and Jakob Junis to free agency in the last 24 hours, and has a lack of starting pitching depth due to that and injuries to Brandon Williamson and Julian Aguiar who will be out for all of 2025, needs to aggressively go after Rea – even if it means going beyond making a waiver claim and trying to trade for him.
Rea has a $5,500,000 team option for the 2025 season. That means that a team has to waste almost no time in picking him up because that option must be exercised by Monday evening.
The 34-year-old threw 167.2 innings for Milwaukee this past season. He went 12-6 with a 4.29 ERA (98 ERA+). While Rea isn’t going to likely be a difference maker in a rotation, he is a guy who can be league average – as he’s been the past two years since returning from a stint in Japan. There’s experience in the bullpen, too, so if you wind up with better options in the rotation then sliding him into a relief role won’t be out of his wheelhouse.
From a monetary standpoint, he makes next to nothing. And he would only be a 1-year commitment for the team, too. There is almost no downside.
With that said, and as noted above, he may need to be traded for rather than just claimed on waivers. Given his contract and performance, it seems likely that multiple teams are going to be interested in acquiring him. That’s going to mean you have to hope no one else wants to give up something for him, or you are going to have to find something to give up in order to bring him in. The cost to acquire him probably isn’t going to be that high in terms of sending a player to the Brewers, but it’s the road to explore if you want to bring in cheap but solid starting pitching depth for 2025 – something the Reds appear to need at this point.
