The Mets aren’t expected to make Bartolo Colon available at this year’s trade deadline, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News reports, barring a situation where “trading him would somehow directly improve their playoff chances.” Colon, Dillon Gee and Jon Niese were all being shopped by the Mets during the offseason but none were dealt, a non-move that could end up being a prudent one for the team given that Zack Wheeler was lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery.
Colon has essentially been seen as a trade candidate ever since he signed his two-year, $20MM free agent contract in January 2014. As Martino puts it, “the Mets might has well have issued Colon a jersey with ‘PLACEHOLDER’ on the back” as the thinking was that the Mets would eventually use the veteran as a trade chip once one of their younger arms was ready to take his spot in the rotation. The Mets didn’t get much interest about Colon at last year’s trade deadline, however, and despite testing his market over the winter, the club began to feel more inclined to keep Colon even late last season.
“Our thinking has changed a lot” about Colon, a team insider tells Martino. Obviously, Colon’s performance has been a factor, but the team also values his clubhouse popularity and his mentorship of young pitchers. Additionally, Martino notes that Colon’s experience could be an asset to a young team that hopes to be in a pennant race.
Colon celebrates his 42nd birthday on May 24, and despite his age and no-frills arsenal (he has thrown his 88.6mph fastball a whopping 88.1% of the time), Colon is still a solidly effective Major League starter. Over 32 2/3 innings this season, Colon has a 3.31 ERA, 25 strikeouts and just one walk allowed, with ERA indicators like FIP, xFIP and SIERA indicating that his performance is no fluke.
I remember Bartolo when he came up from the minors. Such high expectations. And he had some great years. But because he was not dominant for more then a year or two here and there, he was always written off. And there was his body type as well which entered into peoples perception of him. Yet here he is at 42 still giving his team quality innings and mentoring young players. Says a lot for him, says a lot for MLB. What other professional team sport has 42 year-olds that can go out and still influence major portions of games? Baseball IQ counts.
Good points all around.
Amazed me that as short as 2y ago, the guy could still reach back and hit 95mph when he had to several times per game, even up in the pitch count. A gutsy pitcher who kept on over coming injuries.
Once a man can regularly get MLB hitters out with an 88.6mph fastball, he has most certainly become a pitcher and not a thrower.
Baseball needs more “Pitchers”….from Little League, to High School to the Show.
The problem is no team wants to draft Greg Maddux today. They all want guys who can get up in the high 90s. Its unfortunate.
Agreed, the first pitcher who came to mind when I posted about a low-velocity but effective pitcher was Maddux. Never blew anybody away, just left them wondering how in the world they could hit the guy.
That’s just the way it is with pitching and pitchers. It used to be fairly rare for any team to have guys who threw 90mph, no kidding. JR Richard, Nolan Ryan, Bobby Veale were anomaly’s in the league. Most pitchers threw mid-upper 80’s at the hardest.
Big reason for all the TJ surgeries. You have all these high school and college players trying to throw as hard as they can (because thats what scouts want to see) rather than learning how to fool hitters and locate pitches. Then if they are lucky enough to reach the majors in their early 20s most of them have already been putting serious strain on their elbows for the past 6+ years.
I’ve paraphrased Dr. Jobe before and I will again…Throwing is good…throwing hard all the time is very bad.
Completely agree, its a great ability to reach back and throw a 99 mph fastball when you need to. Throwing hard the entire outing is unnecessary.
Greg Maddux hit mid-90s in the Minors, actually.
Doesn’t really matter. He made his name by being a “pitcher” not a hard thrower.
Right, but he wasn’t “Greg Maddux” when he was discovered.
It’s the same with hitters. Not every hitter has to be a power guy. I’ve seen posts regarding “Mark Reynolds types”, guys that can barely hit .240 in a good year and swing so hard their shoes untie and people say…”yea but he has power…sign him”. So? Give me hitters that make contact and if they have the build the power will come. Give me pitcher that know the strike zone and how to use it and I’ll give you a winning team.
to call it a ‘fastball’ is an oversimplification. he cuts it, plays with it, etc, just not enough for Pitch F/x to call it something else.
With all of the injuries to the Mets this year…they’re not in a position to trade away anyone on the major league roster.
With the Mets rotation they’re legitimate playoff contenders. Keeping Colon makes sense. Next year they’ll have Wheeler back plus they still have Syndergaard, Matz and Montero. They’ll have a good, young staff for years. They’re glad they didn’t trade Gee this offseason but you can bet he’ll be back on the market next winter.
They have a good rotation, but when they lost Wheeler I think it kinda hurt their playoff chances, but they are off to a great start.
I mean, the Cardinals did win the world series back in 2011 without Wainwright pitching a single game that year.
Granted the Cardinals are the Cardinals, one of the more successful franchises the past decade. But Wheeler is also not Wainwright-like (yet.) I wouldn’t call them world series favorites, but we have seen crazier things happen.
Except you don’t know that they’ll have Syndergaard, Matz, and Montero. There are no guarantees as to just when any or all of them will be major league ready. And Wheeler likely won’t be to full strength till mid-season.
So let’s do the math. Colon is a free agent. If you also trade Gee you are left with THREE major leaguers to sart the season, and relying on the idea that at least two of the three prospects ARe bona fide ready-for-action starters AND that the third will also be ready to jump in if someone should get injured.
Thats a lot of ‘Ifs’ to depend on. It could happen the way you’ve imagined.
But we’re still at least two months away from having any sort of legitimately clear idea as to where the three prospects level of readiness really is.
I’d love to see him become a coach once his playing days are over with.
i don’t think he’s looking to do that. he’s been working in this country for 20 years. Yet he just became a citizen this past off season. why do you think that is? He expects to retire soon, and would no longer be able to get the work visas.
The guy is over achieving in a bad division and is over 40 years old. I say flip him for anything yoy can get
He also has a Shake Shack veto provision in his contract where he can refuse a trade to a team that does not have a venue of equal or superior quality to the Shake Shack at Citifield.