As the Boston Red Sox were making their drive to get into the postseason for the first time since 2021, they made a Sept. 13 signing of a veteran, proven reliever who had been designated for assignment by the Atlanta Braves just days earlier. John Brebbia, drafted by the New York Yankees in 2011, in the 30th round — a round which does not even exist anymore — had been “a full-time big leaguer since 2017, posting a career 3.80 ERA, 25.9 percent strikeout rate and 7.3 percent walk rate across 355 innings before this season,” the Red Sox media outlet NESN reported at the time.
Less than three months later, Brebbia is a Colorado Rockie, his seventh organization in his eight-year career.
The Red Sox, however, were the 35-year-old Brebbia’s third organization of the year. He started by signing a one-year, $2.25 million free agent contract with the Detroit Tigers before the season. The right-handed reliever, a native of Sharon, Massachusetts — a suburb of Boston — got off to an eye-catching start in Detroit, throwing nine innings and allowing just one earned run with nine strikeouts.
But a right triceps strain put him on the injured list in late April. When he got back on the mound about three weeks later, he was not the same, coughing up 16 runs in his next 9 2/3 innings before the Tigers had seen enough and DFA’d Brebbia on June 15.
More MLB: Yankees Sign Sidearm Reliever With ‘Insane Ability to Punch Batters Out’
Just two weeks later, Brebbia signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves, and in a Triple-A stint with the Gwinnett Stripers appeared to have regained his effectiveness, posting a 1.89 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 19 innings. But he received little chance with Atlanta’s major league club, getting into just three games while being touched for five runs in 4 2/3 innings.
The Braves then DFA’d him, only to see the Red Sox pick him up three days after he elected free agency rather than return to the minors. But for Boston he never threw a major league pitch. On Nov. 6, he elected free agency yet again.
On Monday, according to the MiLB.com transactions page, he signed as a free agent with the Rockies, and was assigned to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes.
No details have yet become available on Brebbia’s contract with Colorado, but it is typical in similar situations for a player with major league experience who signs a minor league contract to receive an invitation to spring training, which would give Brebbia one more opportunity to revive his once-promising career.
More MLB: Tigers Trade Idea Gets $3 Million Phillies Outfielder For 1.00 ERA Relief Arm