Bartolo Colon turns 47 next week. At that age, most MLB players have been retired for years, maybe even a decade.
Not Bartolo, who told ESPN’s Marly Rivera he is still eager to pitch another season in the majors.
“If I had the opportunity, I would play in any league; go anywhere,” Colon said. “If any major league team wants an old man, I’m available!”
Colon admitted that he knew that he wasn’t in demand anymore as teams focus on younger players, but said he’d love to finish his career with the New York Mets.
“That Mets team was really something special,” Colon said. “I’ve played with 10 teams, but with the Mets, the way all those players treated me, how that entire franchise treated me, from the front office to the kitchen staff, it was amazing. And Mets fans are the best. In the beginning, when they laughed at me every time my helmet fell off, at first I felt uncomfortable. But when I saw how much the fans enjoyed it, I asked for a bigger batting helmet so that it would fall more because it was so much fun for them!
“If it was up to me, I would retire with the Mets. I would like my career to end in New York.”
Colon certainly has some tricks up his sleeve, though it’s not clear if continued MLB relevance is among them. He last pitched in the league in 2018, when he posted a 5.78 ERA with the Texas Rangers. He was ineffective the year before that, too, putting up a 6.48 ERA while splitting time between the Braves and Twins. Those subpar years may have been the last straw for any interested MLB teams, however badly Colon wants to keep pitching.
