{"id":9999,"date":"2017-11-16T16:10:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T21:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=9999"},"modified":"2018-02-05T10:18:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T15:18:49","slug":"bartolo-colon-signs-with-texas-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2017\/11\/16\/bartolo-colon-signs-with-texas-rangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bartolo Colon Signs MiLB deal with Texas Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The pitcher infamously known as Big Sexy has publicly put his MLB future in doubt, but thoughts of that have been put aside as it was announced that <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/colonba01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bartolo Colon<\/a><\/strong> has signed a MiLB deal with the Texas Rangers for 2018. The deal includes an invitation to spring training where Colon will try to make the big league roster for Opening Day.<\/p>\n<p>John Blake, Executive VP of Communications for the Rangers, shared the news on Twitter Sunday:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rangers have agreed to terms with free agent RHP Bartolo Colon on a 2018 minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. He was 7-14 with Braves and Twins in 2017, his 20th ML season.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John Blake (@RangerBlake) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RangerBlake\/status\/960268385362829312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1>Bartolo Colon Signs MiLB deal with Texas Rangers<\/h1>\n<h3>Colon&#8217;s Career<\/h3>\n<p>To start his career, Colon was signed as a free agent by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/cleveland-indians\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cleveland Indians<\/a> in 1993. His debut would come four years later for the Indians in 1997. It was in Cleveland that he would spend most of his career, six years to be exact, and he would acquire a 3.92 ERA with 873 strikeouts. During his time in Cleveland, he was named an All-Star in 1998. Before the 2002 trade deadline, Colon, along with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/drewti01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tim Drew<\/a><\/strong>, was traded to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/washington-nationals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals)<\/a> in exchange for first baseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stevele01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lee Stevens<\/a><\/strong>, second baseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phillbr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brandon Phillips<\/a><\/strong>, center fielder<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sizemgr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Grady Sizemore<\/a><\/strong>, and pitcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leecl02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cliff Lee<\/a><\/strong>. After spending a year in Montreal, Colon was traded again, this time with infielder<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=nunez-001jor\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jorge Nunez<\/a><\/strong>, to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/chicago-white-sox\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago White Sox<\/a> in exchange for pitcher<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hernaor01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Orlando Hernandez<\/a><\/strong>, pitcher<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/biddlro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rocky Biddle<\/a><\/strong>, and first baseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/liefeje01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeff Liefer<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>After the year in Chicago, Colon would sign as a free agent with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-angels\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Angels<\/a>. Colon would spend four years there, during which he would win a Cy Young Award in 2005, and be named an All-Star the same year. In his two years with the Angels, Colon acquired a 4.66 ERA with 422 strikeouts. After declaring free agency, Colon would sign a contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/boston-red-sox\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boston Red Sox<\/a> for the minor leagues. That contract was purchased by the Red Sox on May 21st, 2008. At the end of the year, Colon declared free agency and signed with the White Sox for the second time. In the two years he played for the White Sox, Colon had a 3.93 ERA with 211 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<h3>Colon&#8217;s Twilight Years<\/h3>\n<p>After the second go around in Chicago, Colon had to take a year off due to right shoulder injuries and signed with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/new-york-yankees\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Yankees<\/a> in 2011. After that year, which ended in an ALCS defeat, Colon signed with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/oakland-athletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Athletics<\/a> on a one-year deal on January 12th, 2012, then another one-year deal in 2013. In those two years, Colon was very good, managing a 2.99 ERA with 208 strikeouts. On December 11th, 2013, Colon signed a three-year deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/new-york-mets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Mets<\/a>, pitching a solid 3.90 ERA with 415 strikeouts. After his contract expired, he signed a minor league contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/atlanta-braves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves<\/a>, but was released after an 8.14 ERA.<\/p>\n<p>Three days after being released from Atlanta, Colon was picked up by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/minnesota-twins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Minnesota Twins<\/a>, where he revived his 2017 campaign, pitching a complete game, and becoming the second oldest player to do this in MLB history.<\/p>\n<h3>Impact of Signing<\/h3>\n<p>Colon will enter Spring Training fighting for a roster spot with Texas, and fans will have to wait and see if he will indeed play in MLB this season. Should he make the team, the Rangers would gain a leader in the clubhouse and a solid veteran presence on the mound. But Big Sexy is getting older, and it may not be too long before he hangs up his cleats.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"ptL84xoRTQZH5mqKlhQOCw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/864464788\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ptL84xoRTQZH5mqKlhQOCw',sig:'KRMeE9DmGBdpvYsTuz2ogTQtQ2_ZY16YVRqQrVDsoKw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'864464788',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bartolo Colon Signs MiLB deal with Texas Rangers: It was announced Sunday that Colon has signed a one-year deal with the Rangers and will head to Spring Training with a shot to make the Opening Day roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2292,"featured_media":10032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,926,35,18],"tags":[623,68,941,174,69,259],"class_list":["post-9999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-milb","category-news","category-rangers","tag-bartolo-colon","tag-baseball","tag-latest-mlb-news","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-texas-rangers"],"modified_by":"Paul Harvey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}