4:17PM: Colon isn’t retiring, MLB Trade Rumors has learned from the pitcher’s agents at Wasserman.
12:33PM: 2005 AL Cy Young award winner and four-time All Star Bartolo Colon is officially hanging up his glove, reports MLB Insider Hector Gomez. Now age 50, “Big Sexy” hasn’t pitched in the majors since the end of the 2018 season, though he pitched in the independent Mexican League as recently as the 2021 season.
Colon’s MLB career began in Cleveland in 1997. Though he struggled to a 5.65 ERA in 94 innings as a rookie, he would quickly become the club’s reliable workhorse, pitching to a 3.91 ERA (122 ERA+) with a 4.00 FIP over 819 innings during the 1998-2001 campaigns. He got off to a phenomenal start in 2002, with a 2.55 ERA that was 72% better than league average, before being shipped to Montreal in a deal that spawned a trade tree in Cleveland that includes players like Cliff Lee, Carlos Carrasco, and Andres Gimenez. Colon pitched well with the Expos, posting a 3.31 ERA in 117 innings before the club dealt him to the White Sox.
Colon pitched a career-high 242 innings during his 2003 season on the South Side, posting 3.87 ERA (120 ERA+) before departing for free agency the following offseason. He landed a four-year deal with the Angels in free agency, and after struggling to a 5.01 ERA in his first season with the club delivered a phenomenal 2005 season that earned him his second career All Star appearance and a Cy Young award. During the campaign, Colon racked up a league-leading 21 wins in 33 starts as he posted a strong 3.48 ERA in 222 2/3 innings of work.
Unfortunately, Colon’s final two seasons in Anaheim would be tainted by injury, as he struggled to a 5.90 ERA in just 155 2/3 innings across the two campaigns. After departing Anaheim, Colon would pitch just 101 1/3 innings over the next three years, suiting up for the Red Sox in 2008 and returning to the White Sox in 2009 before missing the entire 2010 season due to shoulder injuries.
His return to a major league mound came in 2011 after he signed a minor league deal with the Yankees. In the Bronx, Colon posted a solid 4.00 ERA in 164 1/3 innings of work with a FIP of 3.71. The 2011 season represented a new beginning for Colon, now 38, as he would go on to pitch more than 150 innings in each of the following five seasons for the A’s and the Mets. This stretch included Colon’s third All Star appearance, which came in Oakland as he posted a phenomenal 2.65 ERA in 190 1/3 innings of work en route to a sixth-place finish in AL Cy Young award voting.
It also included his fourth and final All Star appearance, which came at the age of 43 with the Mets in 2016. After making it to the World Series with the Mets in 2015, Colon posted a 3.43 ERA that was 17% better than league average by measure of ERA+ in 191 2/3 innings of work as the Mets returned to the playoffs, though Colon ultimately did not pitch for the club in the postseason as New York lost the NL Wild Card game to the Giants. Colon pitched in the majors for two more seasons after leaving the Mets, posting a 6.13 ERA in 289 1/3 innings split between the Braves, Twins, and Rangers before making his final MLB appearance at the age of 45.
In all, Colon pitched 3,461 2/3 innings across 565 appearances in his career, which spanned more than twenty seasons. The big right-hander finishes his career with an above-average 4.12 ERA and 4.15 FIP for his career with 2,535 strikeouts. MLBTR wishes Colon all the best as he officially moves into his post-playing career.
Stay sexy, friends.
wood – Nick just wrote he screwed up, Colon is not retiring.
Highlight of his career will always be his AB for the Red Sox in Philly, legendary.
I wouldn’t say he screwed up. He relayed exactly what the MLB Insider said and then said that Colon’s agents denied that.
nah the highlight is his home run and the over 30 second trot around the bases
Ohhhhhhh ok, thanks for clearing that up Bartolo. We were all confused about your status
Lol
247 wins let him enjoy his day, five seasons with 18 or more wins, four time all-star and a cy young, over 2500 Ks, over 46 war . . . And not much else to celebrate at citifield this year
One of my favorites
You forgot the best part: 1 career HR
i watch that at least once a year
“And not much else to celebrate at citifield this year”
Doing a lot better than your Cubs, bud.
Either way, still apparently not money well spent.
RCT
Right now the Marlins are ahead of the Mets – who just lost today- but you are right the Cubs have two more losses than the Mets do. If you think that is something that the Mets were hoping for at the beginning of the season well you can have your opinion.
Coming back as a position player due to his prowess as an everyday hitter. He likes the idea of catching, you know, sitting down while the pitcher has to work. Love this idea…
Nah, I picture him more at ss. He has the arm and he can really turn a double-play.
You mean double cheeseburger?
Double chin?
He waited until 50 to make it official! He had a long career at any rate. Best wishes on retirement.
My first reaction was, is this the same Bartolo Colon who pitched in the last century? I had no idea he was still playing. I remember him playing with the White Sox. I think it was during their red uniform days. What a great career. To pitch into his mid-40’s, he’s the bb equivalent of Tom Brady. With his numbers, I hope he at least gets some consideration for the HOF.
My first reaction was, is this the same Bartolo Colon who pitched in the last century? I had no idea he was still playing. I remember him playing with the White Sox. I think it was during their red uniform days. What a great career. To pitch into his mid-40’s, he’s the bb equivalent of Tom Brady. With his numbers, I hope he at least gets some consideration for the HOF.
Looks like it was your second reaction, too
@avenger65: My first reaction was this is a guy who felt the need to post the same thing twice.
You sound bitter, Stuart. Maybe you should eat a Snickers.
It was so beautifully written, I just had to let the bb world read it for a second time.
@The Deputy Mayor: Remember when I asked for your opinion? Me neither.
Remember when you thought we cared about your opinion?
Me neither
Baron, kudos, your photo perfectly matches your attitude – but to your credit we know you just passed a Colon exam.
say it aint so bart. many teams need starting pitching and an occasional DH. make one more comeback
It ain’t so, it seems. He’s just toying with us. Retirement age is 67!
Yeah, the Phillies need a 5th starter. Can’t do any worse than their other 5th starter options. And they have a love for existing Mets pitchers. Give Dave a call, maybe he’ll hook you up for another season.
Legend.
Oakland was just looking into acquiring him.
Too good for the A’s.
i don’t think he was traded for andres gimenez lol
No one said he was.
He wasn’t the article says trade tree..
I love trade trees. I think Oakland still has one going for Nick Swisher and he was in the A’s Moneyball draft of 2002.
Are we in the Trust Tree?
I didn’t understand the trade tree and what it had to do with Gimenez, Carrasco and Lee.
Colon was traded for a package including Cliff Lee. Lee was traded for a package including Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco (and Lindor) were traded for a package including Andres Gimenez.
Although let’s be honest here. Carlos Carrasco is not the reason the Mets sent Gimenez. He was just a relative throw in in that deal. By that logic, Trevor Bauer was also on the trade tree because Jason Donald (also in the Lee/Carrasco trade) was part of the 3 team trade that acquired him.
@Avenger.
Trade trees are essentially a way to track what happened after a specific trade, they can last years and really only finish once players get cut or retire
For example, player A gets traded for players B C and D.
You then trade players B and C next year acquiring player E. Player D gets traded for players F G and H.
Player F gets cut and never plays again, player G ends their career after injury and player E and H retire with that club.
Player A led to players E and H in a trade tree
Then you could also go the opposite way. How how did Colon get to Cleveland? And on and on until we get to the 1871 Boston Red Stockings (currently the Atlanta Braves).
Bartolo dinger is one of the great moments in. Baseball
Was that when he was very large and he barely made it around the bases as his teammates good-naturedly laughed at him? Because I saw that just recently.
@avenger65: He was large for his entire career.
Yeah you can’t really talk about Colon’s career without mentioning how entertaining he was at bat. He’d swing at a pickoff attempt. In over 300 PAs he walked exactly once.
colon is the true goat>mj lebroon
1 Cy Young Award
4 All Star Games
1 suspension for PEDs
2 families
He’ll have time for both of them now!
That Cy Young belongs to Johan Santana in my heart
@ eighty. The big guy literally hooked up with his waitress. Lol
*at least 2 families
I will always remember him for being late to a blue jays game because of a DUI, and heckling him as a “booze can” in the bullpen… And that HR was pretty memorable too. Wish him the best of luck in his next chapter of life
And the article uses the word, ‘phenomenal’ not once or twice but thrice…
It was the blurst of times.
[salutes]
Isn’t he going to have a Good-Bye tour?
Surely his agent can get him another $20-25m in todays MLB marketing environment – just for going into each park, sitting in a car while being driven around the field and waving to the fans between innings.
Surely ESPN, MLB.TV, TNT and CNN will cover each appearance while grown commentators yuk it up like 12 year-olds.
He’s not a Yankee, so no need for all that
Which team would he do that for? He did play for a lot of them.
I think of him most as an Indian, but I could see Angels fans or even Mets fans claiming him as their own.
Indians/Guardians or Mets
Just the Indians. He never played for the Guards. Yet.
How about just an All-Star in three different decades?
Sexiest Colon of ’em all. Someone else said it best, stay sexy, Bartolo. If only half as many pitchers had that sweet swing.
That sucks. He was the last active player older than me. I still vividly remember a time when guys 30 years older than me were playing. Now there are people playing that were born when I was in my 20s. Getting old is hard.
Active? He hasn’t played in an MLB game in 5 years…. he wasn’t active.
Yes I know that. That is why I used the word WAS and not IS. There have been no players older than me since he was active.
There are guys retiring now that are younger than my daughter. That hurts.
hiflew- Getting old is lucky. Like another life is taken on.
griffey jr was the first big leaguer who was younger than me and jamie moyer was the last. now i’m older than most first base coaches
I am a little younger than you. Andruw Jones was the first big leaguer younger than me. But not far off.
I would read the back of every bb card: Wow, this guy is 20 years older than me. Ten years older. As old as me. Five years YOUNGER than me? When did that happen?
Lol
Some would say he’s….. Colon it quits.
Thank you, thank you
I remember Jeff Todd having a Bartolo Colon memorial chat several years ago thinking he was done after a DFA. But Big Sexy sure showed us.
Lmaoooooo I thought he already did retire
You forgot Colon’s most important stat of all time….
youtube.com/watch?v=OVFsq9FQBlc
That wasn’t a jog around the bases.
It was a migration.
moving like a glacier
No incentive for him to come back now that they don’t let pitchers hit.
PLEASE reconsider and come back to Oakland!
I think the 4.15 era is the only thing holding him back for being a Hall of famer
I love Bartolo and he’s one of my favorite players. He had a lot of longevity to compile stats but was never a truly dominant pitcher and his peak was short by HOF standards. If he had postseason accolades, one could make a better argument. He’ll get some votes due to his popularity.
If Andy Pettitte can’t get in, Bartolo isn’t a HOF pitcher
He’s still better than 99% of the current crop of throwers in the MLB. And shame on the MLB for getting rid of the pitcher being required to hit.
I understand that Cohen has to pay these players some how, but hes making this franchise look like a joke. Why are we having a whole day dedicated to Colon? He pitched on the team for 3 years in his 40s. Why are we retiring players that dont deserve to get their numbers retired and or inducted into the Mets Hof like Al Leiter, Willy Mays, Kooseman, Keith Hernandez, etc. I was never a David Wright fan but I’d understand if they would want to retire his number. Lifelong Mets that are in the HoF should get their numbers retired (Piazza an exception). Whats next, Gooden, Strawberry, even Nolan Ryan? Its a joke
Someone pissed in your cornflakes again, eh? I hope the Yankees invite him back for Old Timers Day.
LFGM typed out a whole paragraph to say somethin’ but all I heard was “get off my lawn!”
@YankeesBleacherCreature not surprised to see you make a comment like that considering the Yankees retire almost everyones number. Its alright that you don’t know any better
While he’s still playing.
A whole day? It must have taken you eight hours to write your post.
there are a dozen players in the HOF who are less worthy than big sexy. he was great for the game
“Trade Tree”.
That’s fun. If that were a regular feature at MLBTR, I’d read it.
It fits in nicely when they look back on how trades worked out for both teams.
This is one of the great moments in the history of baseball!
Bartolo is the man! The behind the back flip to first base against the Marlins was one of the coolest things I ever saw in a game.
Now Colon can go into the Hall of Fame alongside Joey Votto. 😉
youtu.be/OVFsq9FQBlc
Great moment & call
Best career # $117M is earnings! Enjoy retirement!
So many accolades for a cheater. What a world.
Santana should’ve won the Cy that year. It was still the era of wins for Cy Young’s. If not Santana than Mariano. Colon shouldn’t have been better than 3rd.
Being able to go deep in games, and pitch better than your opponent to get the Win is a lost art. I looked at the Toledo starting staff yesterday, and most are averaging less than 5 per start. How does that prepare them for pitching in the majors? Reese Olsen comes up and throws 5 hitless innings but hasn’t thrown 80 pitches all year! That’s why wins mean even more today, for starting pitchers. If you have the lead after pitching 7 or 8 innings, you are much more likely to get the win than if you leave after 5 with the lead. Look at the numbers for Scherzer and Verlander. They get W’s because they throw innings. They get paid because they get Wins.
Agree with you but in that season it was still Johan, he also led the league in innings pitched that year.
I agree, a pitcher should be allowed to go more than five innings, but it’s the Manager’s fear of a pitcher facing the lineup for a third time that causes them to take a pitcher out too early. Ridiculous. The only reason I understand is if a pitcher has already thrown around 90-100+ pitches. Then I’d pull him unless he was throwing a no-hitter. Then I’d leave it up to the pitcher.
The problem is analytics show that 99% of pitchers suffer seeing a lineup for the third time. The stats show that BA, OBP, and SLG all go up exponentially the third time through the order
Barktolo is going to be devastated
Great name!
read this 20 times and it still makes me laugh
amazinavenue.com/2016/7/13/12170246/a-league-of-ba…
“And it was also somewhat satisfying to see players like Jimmy Rollins and Eric Hosmer erased from existence…” made me lol
Congratulations on officially ending a stellar career. There were multiple times when Colon looked done but then he showed he still had more in the tank.
This a bit of a melancholy Congratulations though as it also officially means R.I.P. to the Montreal Expos. Colon was the last player to play for the organization to retire. Miguel Cabrera and Zack Greinke are the last two remaining players to play against the Expos and only Cabrera played against them in Montreal.
If you wait awhile Colon might be named player/manager of the two-time expansion Montreal team in the near future.
The last Expo standing to retire. Bartolooooooo. Who would’ve thought 20 years after their demise, one of their players in 2023 would be “officially” retiring. Bartolo is the Vin Diesel of MLB.
Cheers to a great career!
Welcome back!
What made you think he was retiring? And then what made you realize he wasn’t? This is some solid journalism.
Sign back with Cleveland!
Jump the gun, Mr. Deeds or is BC just flip-flopping?
At least he wrote a correction. Some writers just let it go and hide from criticism.
Big Sexy is NOT retiring!!!!
I never retired either. They just told me I was done.
oakland should go out with a bang and sign him as a two-way player
Hector Gomez should work for CNN
Whew! Good to know. My grandpas 16” league is still looking for someone that can walk.
Damn it Preller stop already!
Well, he knows how to pitch
So if he can still do jt
Whose pitching injuries mount up to the point they sign him? Bets???
Considering he started his career in the late 1890s, he still has something left I’m sure.
Can’t wait to read his memoir beginning with that era. The dead ball and all that.
Just took a quick look at Bartolo’s WAR/Salary ratios and he produced exceptional value almost everywhere he went. You rarely see that. Montreal, Boston, and Minnesota received infinite WAR/$ from Botolo. From there, the rest of his $ per WAR by team is:
CLE $424K
NYY $600K
OAK $602K
CHW $1.7M
TEX $2.1M
NYM $5.8M
LAA $12.1M
ATL -$5.9M
Somebody should take a chance on him this year if he isn’t going to retire.
Here’s my pitch:
Colon to the A’s. He starts every single A’s home game as an “opener”, goes an inning or less every time.
The twist is the A’s don’t use him at all on the road.
If you want to see the legend in action, you must attend a game at the colloseum.
Even better, have him pitch just the 5th inning this year and next and you can see him possibly get his 300th win. That’ll put butts in seats.
Word on the street in Bridgeport is that Bartolo is heading back to Chicago. Yes a minor league deal is in the works as we speak
Relief washes over me in an awesome way with this bit of updated news.
That update is fiiiire!!! Big sexy=Minnie Minoso..but better! Preller…line 1..
So is the Mets celebration in August cancelled?
This guy will be 90 years old and still able to throw 80 strikes in a row
The Mets should hire him as an assistant pitching coach , he would be great for morale in the clubhouse, no dull moment.
Reports of his retirement have been greatly exaggerated. I think hiflew’s idea is an excellent one. Have him pitch the fifth inning whenever you have a lead in a bullpen game or where the starter has a high pitch count to give him a chance to reach 300 wins.
Bringing Sexy back, yeah, yeah!
I remember his great years in Cleveland. Definitely a legend!