As Bartolo Colon approaches his 47th birthday, he says isn't ready to step away from the game. He spoke to ESPN’s Marly Rivera this week, telling her that he’s holding out hope for one final run in the Majors.
Mets fans are the best. In the beginning, when they laughed at me every time my helmet fell off, at first I felt uncomfortable. But when I saw how much the fans enjoyed it, I asked for a bigger batting helmet so that it would fall more because it was so much fun for them!
Colon made clear that he’s willing to pitch with any team, in any role, so long as it means one more run in the Majors. The well-traveled righty has already suited up for 11 clubs to this point in his big league career: the Indians, Expos, White Sox, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, Athletics, Mets, Braves, Twins and Rangers.
He last appeared with the 2018 Rangers, tallying 28 games (24 starts). However, he hasn’t had an above-average campaign on the mound since his age-43 season with the Mets back in 2016 (191 2/3 innings, 3.49 ERA, All-Star appearance). Over his past two seasons in the big leagues, Colon has an ERA just north of 6.00. To his credit, Colon had plenty of sharp outings with both the Twins and Rangers — they were just mixed in with numerous clunkers that outweighed much of the good he did when at his best.
Seeing Colon back in the big leagues is a long shot at this point, but teams will need more depth than ever as rosters expand to accommodate a shortened ramp-up period to the 2020 season.
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