Padres News: A “Rea” of Hope?
Colin Rea has finally been called up to make his Major League debut for the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds. Some people may not know much about the young, twenty-five year old right hander. Rea was drafted by the Padres in the twelfth round of the 2011 MLB draft.
Over the course of his young career Rea hasn’t really been a highly touted prospect and was at many times lost in the shuffle of the Padres many good pitching prospects. However in the offseason, with the trades of top pitching prospects Max Fried, Matt Wisler, and Joe Ross, Colin Rea was quickly vaulted to the top of the Padres pitching prospect depth chart.
Colin Rea was born in Cascade, Iowa in 1990 and attended Cascade high school before being drafted by the Padres in the twelfth round of the 2011 MLB draft out of Indiana State University. In his first season in rookie ball in 2011, Rea pitched in fifteen games and finished the year with an era under 3.00. The following two years in low A ball Rea struggled with an era over 4.00 in 2012 before bouncing back with an era just above 2.00 in 2013. Near the end of 2013 Rea was called up to high A Lake Elsinore where he finished with an ERA over 6.00.
Rea would stay in A+ in 2014 where he would finish the season with an ERA just a shade under 4.00 in twenty-eight games with Lake Elsinore. This year would be the year that Rea really broke out and proved he had the makeup to be a major leaguer.
Colin Rea pitched the first half of the year with Double A San Antonio and finished with an ERA of 1.08 in twelve starts before his promotion to Triple A El Paso. Rea struggled in six starts with El Paso with an ERA over 4.00 in a hitter friendly league but has still shown enough to earn himself a big league call up.
Colin Rea had a slower development than many other minor league pitchers as it took him nearly four full years before seeing his first major league experience. Prior to this season it did not seem like Rea would make it to the majors in any fashion, anytime soon. A good year in Double-A earned Rea a call up to Triple-A and some struggles in the back end of the Padres rotation has given Rea the chance to finally get his first big league start.
The Padres are relying a lot on the potential of Rea given the depletion of the Padres farm system and the likely loss of one or two starters in the offseason. Rea followed up years of struggles in the minor leagues with a breakout season this year and he has shown that he really does have the talent to succeed at the major league level.
Rea is just a small town boy from Iowa. With that being said he has a good build (6 foot 5 inches, 220 pounds) with the strong pitches and command to have success as a back of the rotation major league starter.
Editorial and Prospect Writer for East Village Times. Twenty-five years young, Patrick has lived in San Diego for his entire life and has been a Padres fan nearly as long. Patrick lives for baseball and is always looking to learn new things about the game he loves through advanced stats.