MLB News and Rumors: Bartolo Colon, Mets, Ink New Deal
Fan favorite Bartolo Colon will be returning to major league action next season after the New York Mets announced that they have signed him to a one-year contract. The agreement has reportedly been inked after the 42-year-old right hander passed the physical.
With this deal, the Mets are simply looking at having better flexibility next season. He'll be staring at the possibility of being the fifth starter, while Zack Wheeler is recuperating from a recently successful Tommy John surgery. When Wheeler returns, Colon is expected to serve as a reliever, something he has been used to in his career.
Aside from his unlikely long tenure in the league, Colon is widely known for having been slapped with a 50-game suspension back in 2012 after violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs. So when the Mets gave him a $20 million, two-year contract the year after, everyone in the league was kind of surprised. But during his first stint with the team, he produced a 4.13 ERA.
It is pretty clear that the Mets are once again taking a big risk in signing a rather old player, who at 42 will surely feel the physical pressure of the whole season. But by the looks of it, he will not just provide something positive on the mound; he also is expected to help the young pitchers of this team. His leadership helped foreign-born pitchers like that of Hansel Robles and Jeurys Familia, both of which credit his advice for their success in the pro ranks.
Also, the team will no longer feel the pressure of activating Wheeler as long as Colon himself stays healthy. The team hasn't officially announced when Wheeler's going to return except that they expect him to be healthy by the middle of the season. Obviously, Colon is a more than capable reliever for Wheeler at this point.
