Bartolo Colon could lose his spot in the Braves’ rotation after an ugly start Monday, writes David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Colon, who turned 44 late last month, allowed eight earned runs against the Phillies yesterday and now sports a 6.99 ERA, 5.9 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 after signing a one-year, $12.5MM deal with Atlanta last offseason. “Haven’t made a decision yet about the next one. We’ll just see,” Braves manager Brian Snitker says of the possibility Colon could miss his next start. Colon says he would be willing to pitch out of the bullpen if necessary, though he has only made nine relief appearances in his 20-year big-league career. Here’s more from the NL East.
- Ryan Raburn returned to the big leagues with the Nationals Monday after an exhausting day of travel, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. Raburn bused from Rochester to Pawtucket with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs Sunday, then received news that the Nats were promoting him to the Majors. He then took a cab to Boston to catch a flight to join the team in Los Angeles. The Nats acquired Raburn from the White Sox in a minor deal late last month, and a spot opened quickly for him after Jayson Werth injured his foot. “We’re left-handed strong off the bench. So we needed some right-handed production,” says manager Dusty Baker. “He was the perfect guy for us. He kind of fell in our lap.” Raburn struggled with Colorado in 2016, but had a good run in Triple-A this season leading up to his promotion, batting .274/.389/.443 in 131 plate appearances.
- Jay Bruce and Neil Walker are eligible for free agency after the season but have interest in coming back to the Mets, Newsday’s Steven Marcus writes. Walker, though, acknowledges the possibility he could depart after extension talks fell through in the spring. “I’m going to have hopefully a lot of options. We’ll see,” he says. “We obviously almost got something done here in spring training and that didn’t happen. I’m not disappointed in the team, but I’m disappointed kind of in the process of things. I guess that’s business.” Last month, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported Walker and the Mets were unlikely to discuss an extension again before the second baseman became eligible for free agency. Walker is in the midst of a characteristically solid .263/.332/.449 season thus far.
Prime example when not knowing when to walk away
Well, he was pretty good last year, at least league-average. The move to a hitter’s park with a worse team behind him isn’t doing many favors. Interesting to think that Colon has won 235 games in his career despite missing, basically, five full seasons in his prime. He could actually be pushing 300 wins at this point were it not for that.
In a pitcher’s park
Now he is in a hitters park
44 time to hang them up
LOL at blaming the Park or the team. First, this years Braves scoring more runs (4.5 per game) than last years Mets (4.1 per game). Second, SunTrust Park sits closer to the middle when it comes to ballparks. Call it a hitters park if you must label it, but really it’s mostly just an average ballpark. Third, and more importantly, Colon is giving up as much away from SunTrust as he is while there (3.43 ERA away last year vs 7.70 or something away this year…..Did all the other away parks in the NL become hitter friendly too? lol). It’s not a park thing. It’s not a worse team behind him thing. Colon just isn’t good. Can’t believe people are trying to make excuses for him.
He throws 87mph. He has relied on location and movement for years. He’s essentially been throwing BP this year. He’ll probably somewhat turn it around if given the chance, but very unlikely to come anywhere close to the value of his contract, and unlikely to fetch anything of value in a trade even if he does turn things around. They’re not contending this year, but the money could certainly be invested more wisely elsewhere.
As long as a team feels a player is worth risking $12.5 MILLION dollars on, most players will not walk away from that kind of money. Given his recent successes, Atlanta had no reason to think otherwise, nor did he. With that having been said, imagine yourself walking away from the one thing you’ve been basically married to most of your life. Most of us tend to try and hang on as long as we can, at least those of us with a competitive nature.
I think he is more married to eating than pitcher but that’s my opinion
Such a high price for an old pitcher
I don’t think they paid more than 2 mil for one pitcher on the padres
Yeah, and how is that working out for the Padres? Colon was worth a couple wins last season and a win is worth about 7 or 8 million bucks on the open market, so Colon is probably being paid appropriately.
To date, Colon has made more than $115 million in his career. He signed on a one-year deal with a deal that had less than a 1% chance (according to Vegas) at winning it all. So, he’d be playing for a new team in a new environment for only a guaranteed season. That’s not me, but would it be worth it for $12.5 million if you’ve already had $100 million to your name? I guess that’s a hypothetical that’s easier to answer when you don’t have a million-dollars to your name than when you have 100 million, but that’s just me.
If either of Colon or Dickey pitched decently it would give us the leverage to deal Garcia, but it’s going to be difficult to deal Garcia and have both remain in the rotation if neither are producing (which Dickey is doing slightly more than than Colon right now). This short-term patchwork job by Coppy and Co. is blowing up in front of us.
When you’ve made 95 starts over your age 41, 42 and 43 seasons with pretty serviceable numbers, why not try once more?
If he gets cut and still tries to play next year, well, then I’d grant your point.
Disagree. $12.5M to play baseball – and it’s not like Colon has some untainted legacy of greatness he has to uphold. Why should he have walked away?
Smh
You are alone on this.
His $12.5 million contract is a primary reason to not walk away.
He knows exactly when to walk away. He’ll walk away when people stop handing him millions of dollars.
I can’t believe people argue against this. Of course he’s going to take 12.5 million to throw play a game. Life is full of decisions a lot more difficult than this one…
Kind of like Jered Weaver
Colon is a shining example of why I have such high respect for guys like David Ortiz and Mo Rivera. They were still productive but still walked away, whether it be due to aches and pains or not wanting to look foolish. And a young player is being kept back by this old coot hanging on.
No, no…he went INTO last night’s start with a 6.99 ERA. He left with an ERA of 7.78. And that doesn’t take into account that 7 of the 9 runs he gave up in the start before against LAA were counted as unearned. He’s been trash except for starts #1 and #3.
For what it’s worth, Baseball-Reference still has him at 6.99 (incorrectly). I have not noticed BR to lag before, but they don’t seem to have updated with last night’s numbers.
I know…and I use B-R a lot, but it’s not the only source for information.
If the Braves send him packing, I’d be willing to bet he’s not calling it quits. He’ll latch on somewhere that needs pitching.
Shape is a relative term here. But he’s done the work to get himself, really just his arm, in shape for the season. So I would think if someone makes him an offer right after being let go, yes he’ll keep trying. Otherwise he’ll ride off into the never-ending buffet that is retirement.
a worse team behind him? no no no good sir. We are a third of the way through the season and the Mets are currently tied with the Braves in the division. Both teams having brutal years, and although Mets fans like to blame their failures on injuries, yall didn’t perform the few . So give me a break.. The move to the unknown hitter friendly park definitely hurt him, but the guy isn’t pitching well at all. His fastball is sitting right down the middle… I mean seriously, you have no chance no matter which team or park you play in when you throw BP at 85 mph. Braves hitting has been good enough to win him games or at least give us a shot to win games… this all falls directly on Colon… he’s been terrible.
I think you missed the point. Worse team being ’17 Braves vs. ’16 Mets.
Yes, the 2016 Mets were better than the current Braves, and defensively the current Braves are not particularly well-construced. Phillips has declined, Adams isn’t any good,, Adonis Garcia or Rio Ruiz aren’t good defenders, Matt Kemp is terrible and Markakis is bad too. Colon is also 44 and puts the ball in play a lot; it’s also just possible he finally has hit the wall. Even Nolan Ryan got bad eventually, and Colon wasn’t exactly Nolan Ryan. He’s had a nice career.
Lol, Kemp, Markakis, and Adams are terrible? That’s funny.
Are you saying Adams isn’t?
Terrible defenders? You can certainly make an argument for it.
Defensively. Kemp is hitting well but is a terrible defender. Marlakis is a bad defensive player. Adams is a bad defender. I don’t think the bad defense has everything to do with Colon’s struggles but it can’t help
Kemp and Adams are terrible
I mean, they aren’t great defenders… but lets be honest… not like the Mets are full of elite defenders either. and at the end of the day, Colon has flat sucked… I’m thinking defense might have saved him maybe 1 run here or there, but not enough to say defense is a major reason he has been terrible this year.
How do you have no chance at 85 no matter what? He was at 85 last year and did well.
And what does “yall didn’t perform the few” mean?
CXCX, yall didn’t perform the few was a typing error on my part… I guess my brain was thinking one thing and my hands typed another.
To answer the first part, he’s throwing BP at 85 and that’s what I said. It implies that he’s throwing it down the middle, where as last year he was hitting his spots. the fact that it’s down the middle 85 mph just makes it easier for the hitters to hit.
The Mets are handicapped by having a gerbil for a manager.
I’m not blaming injures- they suck bawls
I’m no expert, but I feel like 12.5 mill to be a mop up long relief bullpen pitcher is a lot of money wasted… and let’s be honest… a mop up pitcher has to be able to come in and keep the ball game within a couple run of what he inherited… if the game is already a blowout, and we bring colon in… we might see us losing by 20 runs before he’s pulled.
I’d rather just cut him and be done with this experiment… eat the money and test one of our prospects to take over his role in the starting rotation. Newcomb, Sims… Heck … bring up Wisler again for all I care. Just stop the Colon bleeding…. .
Forget that bobblehead night though I’m sure Mets fan will enjoy them. Braves fans will toss them. It’s time to give up on this experiment and cut the cord. Colon will have some lovely parting gifts. As for the other loser, Tehran, send him down to AAA to see if he can turn himself around and learn to focus. Then trade the squirrel. It’s time to unleash some of the “talent” accumulated down on the farm.
PS: Stop blaming the park. Both sides pitch there, so it’s not the problem, the staff is.
Tell that to the Rockies and their fan base.
He pitches there more, obviously.
Where’s the Mets fans clamoring for Bartolo to return? Please don’t deny you’ve posted on here for this!
If ATL pays half of what’s left, I’d bring him back to NYC to be the long man out of the pen and help settle down the rest of the staff.
He can replace Matt Harvey and Zach Wheeler after 4 or 5 IPs…
And I’d send Rafael Montero to the Braves!
Good luck with that!
The only thing Coppolella could do to redeem his pathetic performance is to sign Shohei Otani. This means some high ranking Braves executive should be living in Japan until it happens. Do the Braves have a single player, coach or representative from the Far-East in the organization? Maybe we can give Shohei’s father a job as President of something, he would be as good as what we have now. Sims needs to be called up if for no other reason than to light a fire under Wisler/Blair.
Kenshin Kawakami – the highest-paid minor leaguer ever.
Sims just had his worst start of the year at AAA. Wisler/Blair have had a light under them for the last 2 years that their butts are charred — let’s move on.
I’d still rather see Sims up right now. It’s time to give him a shot. Wisler and most definitely Blair have no business toeing the rubber as a starter ever again unless 4 starters hit the DL between now and the end of the year.
He turned Shelby Miller into Swanson and inciarte. He drafted Allard and signed Maitan. Acuna and Allard are beasting it up in double a at really young ages. His performance has not even been close to pathetic
Well that was a whole lot of typing to say a whole lot of nothing.
At some point the Braves need to see what they have in Newcomb or Sims! Hopefully Saturday will be Newcomb’s chance!
I’m just surprised Raburn took a cab instead of a Lyft or Uber.
baha “oblique strain”
Good timing for use of that 10 day DL.