Shota Imanaga and Seiya Suzuki are not the only Chicago Cubs who know their way around Japan.
Cubs pitcher Colin Rea may not be Japanese like his two teammates, but the 34-year-old is a veteran of Japanese baseball.
Rea, who signed a one-year contract with the Cubs in January, is a former member of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and pitched for the Pacific League club in 2021 and 2022.
“It feels good,” Rea told The Japan Times on Saturday morning about returning to Japan. “I was here (Tokyo Dome) once, got a couple of at-bats here against (Tomoyuki) Sugano. It wasn’t a great game for me, I think he had a hit off me. But it’s just cool to be back in Japan and see all the fans.
Rea participated in the first pitch ceremony before the Cubs’ exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers on Saturday, serving as the catcher for Masanori Murakami, the first MLB player from Japan.
While Rea might be a familiar face for some NPB fans, his teammates Imanaga and Suzuki, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Japanese trio of Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, are the real stars of MLB’s visit to Japan this spring.
“I can’t imagine,” he said of the spotlight on the Japanese players. “I think they’re definitely more used to it, they get that at a young age here. They do such a good job of handling it, a lot better than I would do I think.”
The MLB clubs will open the regular season against each other on Tuesday night at the Big Egg.
Rea was 8-7 with a 3.41 ERA in 140 innings with the Hawks and has fond memories of his time in Fukuoka.
“I would say the biggest thing is how nice and good the guys on the team were,” he said. “A lot of good teammates. They play hard, they play the game the right way.
“Then the fans, the game atmosphere is different here than it is in the States. It’s louder, and it never stops.”
Rea may have a chance to reunite with one of his former teammates on Sunday when the Cubs face the Yomiuri Giants in an exhibition. Longtime Hawks catcher Takuya Kai signed with the Kyojin as a free agent over the offseason.
“Hopefully I can catch up with him and talk with him before the game,” Rea said. “I love Kai, he’s awesome. I always appreciated his hard work. The time that we got to play together, he was a guy that came to the field every single day, and he knew he was going to catch (from) the first inning to the last every single game.”
Rea is preparing for his seventh MLB season in a career that includes stops with the San Diego Padres, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and a previous stint with the Cubs. He has made 94 MLB appearances, including 76 starts.
Rea is coming off a solid season with the Brewers. He finished with a 4.29 ERA that was largely the product of a subpar finish to the season. Rea posted a 3.38 ERA in his first 122⅓ frames of the 2024 campaign.
He has a chance to be part of Chicago’s opening day starting rotation.
Rea arrived in Japan a couple of days later than the rest of the team so he could continue his preparation for the upcoming season. He said he feels great and is ready for opening day.
“I think health is always No. 1 for me,” Rea said. “I think over the past four or five years, that's something that has been a lot better for me. I struggled with health early in my career. I was hurt a few times, had a couple surgeries. So that's definitely No. 1.
"Then just helping this team any way I can to take that next step and make it to the playoffs and win our last game.”
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