When going through the annals of baseball history, there are very few players who are idolized as much as Bartolo Colón. Not only did he come from a poor background in a foreign country (albeit one known for producing incredible baseball players), but he also wasn’t built like the average ballplayer. He wasn’t 6-foot-5 and a brooding hulk of muscle. Instead, he was a 5-foot-11, 285-pound paunchy man on every major league mound he set foot on.
However, the beauty of baseball is that if you have the talent, you will succeed. Sure, there may be areas in which you aren’t as specialized, but your talents will shine through, and Big Sexy was the epitome of this fact.
Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colón
Born: May 24, 1973 (Altamira, Dominican Republic)
Yankees Tenure: 2011
Colón was born in the Dominican Republic and lived there until he was around 20 years old. From ages 9 to 14, he worked manual labor, harvesting coffee beans and fruit for his family. He never had much time to play baseball, despite his love for the game, due to his excruciating workdays. And his love for the game initially drew him into some trouble. According to the New York Post, Colón was arrested for trespassing after he and a group of friends went to a private field to play the game they craved. But, fortunately for him, a group called “The Club of the Mothers and the Club of the Fathers” pooled about $125 to get the group of between 15 and 20 out of trouble. And that would make the field an easy purchase for Colón down the line. However, he was first signed as an amateur free agent in 1993 by Cleveland, giving him a ticket to the United States to try and make a name for himself.
Colón spent about four years in the minor leagues, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t find his successes. It took him a couple of seasons to get used to the professional style, but in 1995, he finally began showing the Cleveland front office why they had brought him into the organization. He won the team’s Minor League Player of the Year Award with High-A Kinston in the Single-A Carolina League thanks to an ERA of 1.96 and 152 strikeouts in 128.2 innings pitched. And in 1997, Colón played for the Buffalo Bisons in Triple-A, posting a 2.22 ERA and 54 strikeouts over 56.2 innings.
At the age of 23, Colón made his debut against the Anaheim Angels, and he was certainly welcomed to the major leagues in a stark way. He pitched five innings, giving up six hits, three walks, and four earned runs while tallying four strikeouts. And it was that kind of season for the rookie, as Colón went 4–7 with a 5.65 earned run average in 19 games played (17 of which he started). In 1988, though, Colón took a huge step forward, almost doubling the number of games he started from 17 to 31, pitching over 200 innings for the first time in his career, registering his first career All-Star appearance, and finishing with a 3.71 ERA at the age of 25. He also pitched six complete games, two of which were shutouts, and pitched a four-hit, one-run complete game gem in his only start of the 1998 postseason in the American League Championship Series against the powerhouse Yankees.
Colón was with Cleveland until the 2002 season. He finished with a 3.98 ERA and 574 strikeouts in 615.1 innings pitched from 1999-2001, his final three full seasons with the club. In 1999, Colón finished fourth in the American League Cy Young voting (Mariano Rivera finished above him in third). But in 2002, he was traded to the Montreal Expos along with another right-handed pitcher, Tim Drew, the middle brother of outfielder and 2007 World Series champion J.D Drew and 2013 World Series champion infielder Stephen Drew. Cleveland received a package of Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Lee Stevens. Colón only played the back half of 2002 with Montreal (with an ERA of 3.31), but still finished sixth in the AL Cy Young voting before being traded to the Chicago White Sox before the 2003 season for a package that included a Yankee legend, Orlando “El Duque” Hernández.
Big Sexy’s only year with Chicago finished with him pitching the most innings of his career at 242 and registering the most complete games not just of his career but in the entirety of MLB as well. And as a free agent following 2003, Colón signed with the Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels, using his first pro contract money to buy the field on which he was arrested for trespassing.
From 2004 to 2007, Colón was a mainstay of the Angels’ rotation and likely would have put up better numbers if not for injuries in the back two years of his time there. The first two, though, were more of the same he had shown in years prior: that he could eat innings and get outs no matter the uniform he was wearing. Colón pitched over 200 innings again, and in 2005, not only was he given another All-Star appearance for his efforts, but he also won the American League Cy Young Award, the first Angels pitcher to do so since 1964. He finished with a record of 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 222.2 innings pitched for a 122 ERA+. But the postseason proved detrimental to him, as he sustained a partially torn rotator cuff against the Yankees, which put him in said injury trouble through 2006. He pitched only 10 games that year and 18 the following year, not reaching 100 innings in either season.
The next couple of seasons were filled with turmoil, as he made a stop in Boston on a minor league deal and pitched well in the lower levels, but only threw seven games in the majors before leaving for the Dominican Republic due to “personal matters” in early September. He was on the restricted list for the rest of the regular and postseason and became a free agent, having pitched only 39 innings that season. Then, Colón had injury issues again, not just with an offseason surgery to remove bone chips in his right arm, which he recovered from and became the White Sox’s fifth pitcher in the rotation. However, he pitched only 12 games due to another injury in early June, this time to his left knee.
Colón did not pitch in 2010 because his body seemed like a hotbed of pain. His throwing arm had major issues between the shoulder, elbows, and wrists, and his leg injury was a handicap for him as well. But, following a full season of recovery and a major stem cell surgery that brought some backlash, Big Sexy was ready to return, signing a minor league deal with the Yankees and was invited to spring training, which he took advantage of, making the Opening Day roster in the bullpen.
Despite being named to the bullpen at the beginning, Colón hardly came in relief at all through the 2011 season. He took the rotation position of Phil Hughes, who sustained an injury, and he ended up pitching 26 of his 29 games as starts, with his first coming on April 20th. Yankees manager Joe Girardi was rewarded for his decision to put Colón on the mound as a starter, as he finished through May with a 3.26 ERA, including a four-hit shutout against the Oakland Athletics on May 30th. He did suffer an injury in early June to his hamstring, but came back as soon as he could off the 15-day injured list, which ended up being July 2nd at Citi Field against the New York Mets, where he dominated.
The 38-year-old Colón finished the year with a 4.00 ERA and an 8-11 record, a far cry from where he had been prior to his injury issues with both Boston and Chicago. He was placed in the bullpen for the postseason, and the Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers in the American League Division Series, which made the right-hander a free agent.
Colón signed with the Athletics for the 2012 season, and he was brought back for the 2013 season as well. The resurgence in New York gave him confidence in Oakland, pushing him to his best seasons since his Cy Young year in 2005 with Los Angeles. In 2012, he was strong, posting a 3.43 ERA over 152.1 innings, but he also dealt with off-field issues, receiving a 50-game suspension from MLB for using synthetic testosterone. But 2013 was spectacular, as Big Sexy finished with a 2.65 ERA in 190.1 innings pitched (30 games started) and an ERA+ of 147. He received his third All-Star nomination and finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting.
Following Oakland, Colón would return to New York but with the club in Queens, signing a two-year, $20 million deal in 2014 at the age of 41. Some of his highlights included being the Opening Day starter for the Mets at 42 in 2015, breaking a Mets record set by Dwight Gooden for most consecutive decisions as a starting pitcher, achieving 26 decisions in 26 consecutive starts, and pitching in the 2015 World Series, the first time he did since 1997 with Cleveland.
The mainstay highlight for Colón (and baseball in general) was the first home run of his career against James Shields at Petco Park, making him the oldest player to hit his first-career home run in major league history (42 years and 349 days). And on July 8th, Colón also received his final All-Star nod, replacing San Francisco Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner.
Colón finished his major league career with stops in Atlanta and Minnesota in 2017, and Texas in 2018 at the age of 45, but hung up the major league spikes following 148.1 innings pitched and a 5.78 ERA in Arlington. He also signed with Acereros de Monclova in 2020, but he never played a game that season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After pitching with the club in 2021, he announced that he would retire in 2022 following another season of winter ball, which he did in 2023.
Big Sexy was the epitome of an innings-oriented pitcher. He was as reliable as they got through the heart of his career and even toward the backend. His love for the game of baseball can never be questioned, as evidenced by both how much he pitched through his career (3,461.2 innings) and how long he pitched (21 seasons). He’s a baseball legend in his own right. Happy birthday, Bartolo!
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