Ranking the Rockies, 2026: No.36, John Brebbia

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2026. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

No. 36, John Brebbia (-0.1 rWAR)

Veteran reliever John Brebbia had a strange and winding journey in 2026.

The 36 year old had spent parts of the previous eight seasons in the Major Leagues after having been a Rule 5 Draftee for the St. Louis Cardinals. For the first six seasons of his career, Brebbia was a quality arm out of the pen for the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.

In 2024, the wheels started to fall off.

Over the course of two seasons, in stints for four different teams, the once reliable right-hander saw ERA balloon from 3.99 in 2023 to 5.86 in 2024 and finally 7.71 in 2025.

Back-to-back rough seasons left the market for Brebbia’s services tepid. At the start of December, the Colorado Rockies took a chance on the journeyman by signing him to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.

At the time, Brebbia thought it was “a good fit” given his personal experience with Denver and his familiarity with Rockies assistant pitching coach Gabe Ribas and director of pitching Matt Daniels, both of whom he had previously worked with as a member of the Detroit Tigers.

Brebbia’s Rockies tenure got off to a great start in the first couple weeks of spring training.

In his first four outings, the right-hander threw five scoreless innings while only allowing a single hit and collecting seven strikeouts. It looked like perhaps the veteran had been able to find the form that had led him to early career success.

However, his chances of making the team plummeted in his fifth and sixth spring appearances for the Rockies in which he allowed seven runs over three innings.

His ultimate undoing was likely the two home runs he allowed to the Giants on March 19.

Just four days later, Brebbia was cut from the roster and granted his release in an attempt to catch on with another team. Ultimately, the journeyman would end up signing another minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins.

Brebbia spent the first two months of the season pitching for the Twins triple-A affiliate, the St. Paul Saints, for whom he amassed a 6.20 ERA over 20.1 innings.

The Twins released Brebbia on May 20. After finding himself once again on the lookout for a place to pitch, Brebbia re-signed with the Rockies and appeared in his first game for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes on May 31.

For the Isotopes, Brebbia genuinely excelled.

After not allowing a run across seven outings for Albuquerque, the Rockies called Brebbia up to the Major League roster on June 21.

His regular season stint with the Rockies mirrored his time with them in spring training.

In his first two outings for the big league team, Brebbia threw three scoreless innings and allowed only two hits. Once again, it seemed like perhaps the Rockies pitching coaches had possibly managed to help the veteran look more like his early career self.

Then came his game against the Marlins on June 30 which… did not go well.

First came this massive two-run homer from catcher Joe Mack in the top of the seventh:

Followed by this absolute skyscraper of a three-run shot from Owen Caissie in the eighth:

Those monster home runs moved his 2026 Major League ERA from 0.00 to 10.38, which is where it remained for the rest of the season because he was designated for assignment the next day.

Brebbia would go on to make another six appearances for the Isotopes before finishing off the season with the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate the Worcester Red Sox.

All told, Brebbia managed to pitch four and a third Major League innings in 2026 with a 10.38 ERA, a 1.62 WHIP, and two strikeouts.

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