From the Collection: Barolo Colon, p, Cleveland Guardians
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Bartolo Colon will be officially retiring from baseball on 17 September 2023. He will retire as a New York Met, who he pitched for from 2014-16. He is 50 years old. I had no idea he hadn’t retired yet.
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Colon spent 21 seasons in the majors. He made the big leagues with Cleveland in 1997, and by the next season had essentially become the team’s ace. When Cleveland traded him in 2003 to the Montreal Expo’s, they were able to get an impressive group of prospects back: Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore. Lee and Sizemore would become cornerstones of some very good Cleveland teams just a few seasons later.
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Fun fact: there is a world where the 2000 Cleveland Indian’s rotation could have been Randy Johnson (who they almost traded for in 1998), Kevin Brown (who they almost signed in 2000), Barolo Colon, Dave Burba, and Charles Nagy. Imagine. Or don’t. It’s a bummer.
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All told Colon would win 247 games in his 21-season career. He was a two-time 20-game winner, four-time All-Star, and the 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner.