Red Sox Sign Colon

Sunday, February 24, 2008

According to ESPN.com, the Red Sox and Bartolo Colon have agreed to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. Colon provides depth to the Red Sox rotation, but is likely a fall back in case one of the younger pitchers goes down. Colon struggled to fully recovered from injury last season and it showed as he went 6-8 with a 6.34 ERA. The 2005 Cy Young winner is a long shot to make the team as his fastball has topped at 87 mpg.

5 comments:

Unknown 5:45 PM CST  

I wish my car got 87 mpg...but on a more serious note, this signing is a great low risk, (i wont say high) reward signing. Former Cy Young minor league insurance cant be bad.

Anonymous 5:58 PM CST  

Apparently, he has a lot left in the tank.

Anonymous 6:21 PM CST  

not a great signing or a bad singing. its a minor league deal and the sox are usually very good when it comes to managing pitchers. im sure they can get colon on some kind of work out plan to get him where he needs to go. also should be interesting to see what john farrell can do with colon. if colon can show he can do anything effective he can be the number 5 guy for a while instead of tavarez or even come out and pitch from the bullpen to help out

Anonymous 7:51 PM CST  

He wont break camp with the team, but the first stint of a major injury to one of the starters I could see him getting the nod over Tavarez, but lets not forget Tavarez can fill that role and he proved that last year with a decent year. Not great, but you have to save the arms for October.

Anonymous 8:23 PM CDT  

The Boston Herald has the contract details. Colon gets $1.25MM if he's in the bigs, and the deal can reach $7MM if he makes 30 starts.

According to ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, the Red Sox have signed starter Bartolo Colon to a minor league deal. The deal has no guaranteed money. That's a far cry from the guaranteed two-year big league deal Colon wanted at the beginning of the offseason.

Colon will add depth to Boston's rotation, and you certainly have to like the move for the Red Sox. Maybe Colon was motivated by a chance to win or a good medical staff, because Boston seems a poor place to find innings if he's mediocre or worse.

He just doesn't look like he's got anything left. I bet he'll be released before the end of the season. He's got no zip on his fastball and very little movement on his vaunted 2-seamer. He's been leaving the ball up in the zone and gets crushed. If he can't keep the ball in the part in Anaheim, there is no way he'll keep it in the park in Fenway. I think there's a reason why teams like the Pirates passed on him and he's been unable to get anything more than a non-guaranteed contract. I think this move says more about the severity of Schilling's injury and the organization's faith in Tavarez.