Starter Spotlight: Should We Colin The Rea-inforcements?

6-15-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X

Is it time for the calvary to arrive? Do we even have a calvary? After scoring just 5 runs in the first 3 games, the Pirates need to dig deep and find a way to break out some more offense with Mitch Keller on the bump opposing Cubs starter, Colin Rea.

Rea pitched 6 innings of 2-run ball against the Bucs on May 1, but hasn’t had much success since that game.

After posting a 1.46 ERA through his first 24.2 innings (including his start against the Pirates, he has pitched 37.1 innings with a 5.54 ERA since then as regression has hit Rea hard.

"What's going on with Colin Rea? Is it just regression?"

The answer is a mix or yes and no. He has looked differently in his last 4 outings. His release extension is lower and he's throwing slower. pic.twitter.com/BjxgywoCP3

— Brendan Miller (@brendan_cubs) June 6, 2025

While he saw a bound back in velocity during his last start versus the Phillies, he has shown a gradual decrease over the past few weeks with his fastball maxing out about 1.5 MPH lower than previously.

As we discussed previously, Rea has seven distinct pitches but mostly leans on his low-90s fastball with deviation among his secondaries depending on opposing hitters.

He’ll use the fastball/slider mix against righties and fastball/curve/splitter against lefties, who are batting .338 and slugging .559 against Rea’s fastball, and 7 of his 9 home runs overall have come against the heater.

If the team isn’t going to bring in additional troops for battle, then the guys that are here will need to find ways to scratch and claw through the game. Lefties, in particular, have an .855 OPS against Rea at Wrigley (compared to .709 for righties) so stack them in the lineup, attack the heater and net a series split in Chicago.