The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran right-hander Bartolo Colon and optioned fellow righty Nick Gardewine to Triple-A. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Colon, Texas moved righty Ricardo Rodriguez from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. Additionally, Texas announced that Tommy Joseph has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Double-A Frisco.
Texas will turn to Colon, 44, to start tonight’s game in Oakland. The timeless veteran inked a minor league pact with the Rangers this offseason and delivered strong results in Spring Training, working to a 3.00 ERA with a 10-to-2 K/BB ratio in 18 innings of work. He’ll join Cole Hamels, Mike Minor, Doug Fister and Matt Moore in the Texas rotation as he looks to continue a career that, upon taking the hill tonight, will have spanned parts of 21 seasons.
Colon split the 2017 season between the Braves and the Twins, struggling badly in Atlanta before rebounding, to an extent, in Minnesota. “Big Sexy” turned in a 3.94 ERA and a 38-to-11 K/BB ratio through his first 10 starts with the Twins before fading and yielding 19 runs in his final 18 1/3 frames (over the life of five starts).
While the season, on the whole, wasn’t a good one for Colon, the popular righty is only a season removed from tossing 191 2/3 innings with a 3.43 ERA, 6.0 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9 with the 2016 Mets. In fact, from 2013-16 with the A’s and Mets, Colon averaged 195 innings per season with a 3.59 ERA, twice making the All-Star team (2013 and 2016) and twice pacing his league in BB/9 (2015-16). He’s one of many veteran arms the Rangers bought low on in the offseason in hopes of catching some lightning in a bottle.
For Colon, the opportunity is not without significance. He’s spoken many times about what it would mean to him to tally another four wins and move into the all-time lead for wins by a Dominican-born pitcher, overtaking Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. Colon is also less than two months away from his 45th birthday, and if he can keep his remarkable career going to that point, he’ll fulfill a promise to his late mother in which he told her he’d pitch until age 45.
Joseph, meanwhile, has struggled to get on base in each of his two big league seasons and saw his overall offensive output decline in 2017. In total, he’s a .247/.297/.460 hitter in 880 PAs, but as an OBP-challenged slugger with significant defensive limitations, his appeal around the league was unsurprisingly somewhat limited. He’ll give Texas some depth at first base, though with Joey Gallo and Ronald Guzman ahead of him on the depth chart at first base and Shin-Soo Choo slated for regular DH work, it might take an injury or two to create a clearer opportunity for Joseph to return to the Majors.
BIG SEXY!
Yes!!! BIG SEX IN TEX!!! Yes this made my day!!!
If he pitches 10 more years he will win 300 games…
Time for a Bartolo – Ichiro match up!
Who downvoted me? I, for one, think it would be entertaining to watch the two mid 40s MLB players matchup, and it could be likely since they are in the same division.
When you ask about downvotes it only makes people downvote you more. For the record, I’m the one up vote. And what we need to be rooting for is Bartolo and Adrian Beltre to play until 2020. In all likelihood they are the last two players to ever get a chance at playing in 4 decades!
Diagnosis tonight @ Oakland Coliseum:
Triggs’ Colon
Big Sexy is back!
The 1990’s live on!!!!!!!!
Rooting for you Big Bart! Good luck
As I do with every Colon post on here. I LOVE IT WHEN YOU CALL ME BIG SEXY!
Guy is disgusting!!!
Says the guy with a Bob Knight avatar
Research Colons history and what type of person he’s been. No it wasn’t just once he was linked with PED’s. You’re a complete idiot to mention someone who was never linked to cheating in the same post.
I live in Bloomington. I’ve seen Bob Knight in action. You may want to read about him sometime.
We’re talking about cheating here mostly. Though Knight is quite the controversial figure he has never been linked to a cheating scandal. Colon is not only known as a cheat and a liar but also is linked to providing other Latin players with crooked sources. I went to IU and realize the people of southern Indiana for the most part worship Knight,doesnt mean I condone his overall actions.
How did we get to this from me singing a song
Bob Knight once pressed a used wad of toilet paper into one of his players’ faces and said “this is what I think of you.” I worked at a restaurant in college in which he frequented and treated the staff so badly that nobody wanted to wait on him ever.
Colon needs a good season so he can ride off into the sunset on top.
Guys like Colon are what is wrong with MLB and that is why it now ranks as the number 3 sport in the US today. Yea there’s a multitude of other factors that have caused baseballs decline in popularity but to root in anyway for a known cheater is beyond me. In a Gallup poll conducted only 9% of the people said that baseball was their favorite sport,the lowest in history.
news.gallup.com/poll/224864/football-americans-favorite-sport-watch.aspx
Patriots are known cheaters and are one of the most popular teams in the nation. Try again.
Hence “there’s a multitude of other factors that have caused baseballs decline in popularity”. One of the most glaring problems with baseballs decline is the lack of African Americans in the game. There’s no popular MLB stars period compared to the NFL or NBA. MLB is in danger of losing its place to soccer and if you counted Colleg Football it would be #4.
No argument with any of the other things you said, but to make the point about how you can’t understand why anyone would ever root for cheaters needed to be called out because of how many people in America absolutely love rooting for the cheaters in New England.
Agreed,it’s just astonishing to me.
Or college basketball, as we celebrate the national championship tonight, brought to you by coaches who make millions, players who are unpaid and programs that constantly are in trouble for cheating. Oh well. I guess Colon’s use of HGH after missing most of 5 seasons to injury is worse? Worse than the Pats or Saints?
I disagree.I think baseball’s decline has more to do with the extended length of the game and the high cost of going to games.People who appreciate the history of the game and the difficulty in achieving success can appreciate the nuances.Others just do not.
The NBA is dominated by African Americans and the defensive side of football is also.I think that the main reason that people are attracted to football is the action and violence in football.It has peaked however and you will be seeing it go downhill in popularity caused by the real health concerns involved with the sport.
A lot of the best athletes go to basketball because that is where the most money is in the quickest time with the highest chance for an extended pro career.
Soccer will never replace baseball in the USA in popularity..
Did you read the article. MLB runs behind soccer with younger people. The average age of a baseball fan is 55 vs the other sports by far the oldest. Baseball is passed down mostly by the father but as that generation dies off so does interest. The whole NFL is mostly African American not just the defensive side.
I do not doubt that what you said about soccer is correct regarding young people and also that baseball has a relatively older crowd following it.In addition,I have no knowledge nor like of soccer so I am biased.I think that it is beyond boring,but it seems to be a lot simpler sport than baseball and thus easier to field a juvenile team. It will never have the richness of history that baseball has had in this country.More may play it and love it for the exercise,but it is not in the hearts like baseball has captured many.
Soccer is not as costly as baseball. Baseball has become more expensive with the expansion of elite team programs where teams travel all over to showcase their talent for College and Pro scouts. That has eliminated many young athletes coming from a middle-low income family. It is unfortunate that certain sports have become a cash grab.
MLB was only down in 2017 by 9 %
It had risen the last 14 years! Let’s check the numbers after the season to see if it continues to decline!
Not down by 9% but down to 9%..lowest in history.
So it couldn’t have risen the last 14 years…in the article..
Attendance is down,ratings are down..
NFL ratings were going down but leveled off this past season..
NBA ratings are on the incline..
Soccer has doubled its ratings from 10 years ago..
Mccutchen? Archer? Betts? Lindor?
McCutchen isn’t a star anymore.
Archer isn’t and never has been a star.
Betts along with Judge have a legitimate chance especially where they play..just not there yet.
Linder isn’t African American.
We just talked about four players and how sad is that.
The percentage of African American players in MLB is at it’s lowest in history…
Does it even matter?
Seems to MLB..
The R.B.I. Program for one.
Yes it matters to have a diverse audience.