Minnesota Twins: Bartolo Colon mulling retirement

After a promising outing for the Minnesota Twins turned sour last night, Bartolo Colon sounds closer than ever to pulling the plug on his 20-year career.

Given his lackluster performance this season, many fans have probably wondered whether this is finally the end of the road for Bartolo Colon. After last night’s start for the Minnesota Twins, it seems the 44-year-old right-hander is wondering the same thing.

Colon made his first outing for the Twins at Target Field yesterday evening, appearing for the 10th franchise in his 20-year major league career. Unfortunately, the results were akin to what we saw from him in Atlanta, which led to his release by the Braves earlier this month. Colon surrendered four runs on eight hits over four-plus innings against the Yankees, taking the loss in Minnesota’s 6-3 defeat.

The effort left Colon’s season stat line at an ugly 2-9 record, 8.19 ERA and 1.79 WHIP over 67 innings in 14 starts.

According to ESPN’s Marly Rivera, the veteran hurler’s struggles this year have forced him to begin contemplating his baseball mortality:

“I’ve had those thoughts [about retirement]. I’ve thought about it, so we’ll see. This year things have gone very badly, and a lot of things come to mind, that maybe it’s better to hang up my glove, as one says, but we’ll see what happens in my next start.”

It’s a sobering thought about a player who has just about defied every convention in extending his already lengthy career over the past several seasons. Colon didn’t play at all in 2010 as he recovered from significant shoulder and elbow issues. It wouldn’t have shocked anyone if he never returned to the big leagues. Yet he came back throwing strikes almost exclusively with his fastball, enjoying surprising success until this year.

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Colon’s numbers from last night don’t look good in the box score, but he did show some reason for hope if you’re the glass-half-full type. Before running into trouble in the fourth and fifth, Colon cruised through the first three innings with relative ease. He allowed two harmless singles and struck out three over that span. And in typical Colon fashion, he didn’t issue a walk all night. He looked as effective as he did during his run with the Mets the last three seasons.

The wheels proceeded to fall off, of course, and Colon finished the outing looking more like the 2017 Braves version of himself. He’ll face a tough challenge in his next scheduled start on Monday against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Not only do the Dodgers own baseball’s best record at 65-29, they rank third in OPS (.793) and fifth in runs scored (480). If you believe Colon, another rough showing against L.A. could push him further toward a very difficult decision.

Colon entered this season hoping to pass Juan Marichal‘s 243 wins for the most ever by a Dominican-born pitcher. He initially seemed a lock to do it, but has picked up only two victories so far this year and still remains nine shy. At the pace he’s going – and with the future not guaranteed – that task suddenly looks insurmountable.

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For many fans, Colon is a link to a rapidly disappearing era. He is one of only three active players to have made their debut in the 1990s. (The other two are Adrian Beltre and Carlos Beltran.) Heck, he even faced both of last night’s managers, Joe Girardi and Paul Molitor, during their playing careers. Colon is also the last active big leaguer to have played for the Montreal Expos.

When the big guy does finally decide to hang it up, a lot of history will go with him. It’s hard not to root for at least one more unlikely twist in Colon’s saga.

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