Former Tigers Imports: Colten Brewer

Name (Japanese): コルテン・ブルワー

Date of Birth: October 29, 1992

Hometown: Dallas, Texas (USA)

High School: Canton High (Texas)

Family Status: Married, two sons

Height: 193 cm (6’4″)

Weight: 100 kg (220 lbs)

Threw/Batted: Right/Right

Position: Pitcher

Wore #: 98

Originally Drafted by: Pittsburgh Pirates (2011, Round 4)

MLB Experience with: San Diego Padres (2018), Boston Red Sox (2019-21), New York Yankees (2023)

Signed with Hanshin on: July 19, 2023

Made Tigers Debut on: August 15, 2023, @ Carp (1 IP 0 H 1 BB 2 K 0 R)

Final Tigers Appearance: October 31, 2023, vs Buffaloes (1 IP 1 H 1 BB 1 R)

Social Media: Instagram

Career Stats:

Brief Biography:

Colten Brewer was a fourth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011. He played Rookie League ball in 2012 and Low-A in 2013, but missed the 2014 season due to injury. He spent 2015 in single-A and 2016 in high-A, with middling results. That offseason, the New York Yankees acquired him in the Rule 5 Draft. He worked through three levels of minor leagues with them in 2017, but signed a deal with the San Diego Padres at season’s end.

Though he started the 2018 season in Triple-A, he got called up and made his major league debut on April 12. He allowed four runs, all unearned, and got sent down to the minors a day later. He got called up again and ended the year with a total of 11 major league mounds. Brewer got traded to the Red Sox that winter. He stayed in their organization from 2019 to 2021, but got DFA’ed in June of that final year. He spent the rest of the year in Triple-A and became a free agent that off-season. He signed with the Kansas City Royals, but never made a major appearance with them. Brewer started the 2023 season back with the New York Yankees, but was designated for assignment early in the year. He spent the next three months in Triple-A, but was released so he could sign with the Hanshin Tigers.

On July 19, the team made it official that it had signed Brewer for the remainder of the 2023 season. He arrived in Japan in early August, and got his first call-up to the top squad in mid-August. His first game came against the Hiroshima Carp on August 15, when he was given the bottom of the eighth inning in a losing cause. He struck out two and walked one. Brewer would continue for a stretch of six games without giving up a single run, allowing just one hit in six innings against the Dragons, Giants, Baystars, Dragons, and Giants, through September 13. His first three runs (one earned) against came two days after the team clinched the pennant, on September 16 in Hiroshima. They all came with the team up seven runs in a blowout of a win that meant nothing in the standings.

The very next day at Koshien, Brewer served up his one and only home run against the Baystars and was hung with the loss. The rest of the regular season, he threw four more innings and allowed just one more run (and nary a hit) in five mounds.

Brewer was only given two shots to pitch in the playoffs. In Game 2 of the Climax Series Final Stage against the Carp, he entered the game in a precarious situation and struck out pinch hitter Ryuhei Matsuyama to end an inning and earn a hold. Then in Game 3 of the Japan Series, he was handed the responsibility of keeping the deficit at 4-1 in the sixth inning. He surrendered a run, and the team lost the game by a 5-4 score.

For most of the postseason, Brewer was left off the bench and was unavailable to pitch. It seemed that management had made up its mind about whether or not they were keeping him. On December 1, he was left off the protected players list, thereby making him a free agent.

Related Articles

Brewer Meets the Press (August 6, 2023)

Tigers Announce Brewer Signing (July 21, 2023)