One day after the Braves signed 42-year-old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, they went even older Friday when they agreed to terms with 43-year-old pitcher Bartolo Colon on a one-year, $12.5 million contract, a person familiar with the situation said. Unlike the Dickey contract, Colon’s deal doesn’t include a 2018 option.
Colon, who’ll turn 44 in May, during his 20th major league season, and went 15-8 with a 3.43 ERA in 191 2/3 innings for the Mets and made the All-Star team.
It was the fourth consecutive season in which he made at least 30 starts and pitched at least 190 innings, and Colon was 6-2 with a 3.17 ERA in his final 12 starts while allowing two earned runs or fewer in nine of those games.
His 233 career wins are third-most by a Latin American-born pitcher, and Colon could move to the top of the list with a healthy season in 2017. He trails only Dennis Martinez (245) and Juan Marichal (243).
The contract won’t be official and announced by the team until Colon passes a physical.
Colon signed with Cleveland in 1993, eight months before Braves rookie Dansby Swanson was born. He debuted with the Indians in 1997, the year Turner Field opened for baseball. He won 20 games in 2002, when Julio Teheran was 11.
He won the American League Cy Young Award with the Angels in 2005, when Atlanta’s Andruw Jones was the National League MVP runner-up and 23-year-old Marlin Dontrelle Willis was the NL Cy Young runner-up.
What we’re saying is, Colon, in baseball years, is quite advanced.
His three 15-win seasons after turning 40 are tied for second-most in major league history, two behind knuckleballer Phil Niekro, whose five such seasons included four with the Braves. When Colon hit a home run May 7 at San Diego against James Shields, Colon became the oldest player to hit his first home run in major league history.
Braves general manager John Coppolella signed Dickey on Thursday at the final day of the General Managers Meetings in Phoenix and said the veteran checked two important boxes the Braves were looking for in a proven starter: Eats a lot of innings, would sign a short deal.
Colon, a four-time All-Star, fit the same two boxes, and the fact that the Braves could sign him early — away from the Mets and other potential suitors — made it that much more attractive. After piecing together a rotation with generally unfavorable results for much of 2016, the Braves wanted to add reliable starters on short deals this winter to serve as a bridge to their next wave of pitching prospects the team expects to arrive in the next couple of years.
Dickey and Colon also have reputations as good leaders and mentors to younger pitchers. Another plus for the Braves regarding Colon: They won’t have to face him in 2017. He’s 9-3 with a 2.49 ERA in 15 career starts against Atlanta, including 5-1 in nine starts over the past two seasons.
The Braves prefer to get their business done as soon as they can, and they’ve already made more moves than any other team in the early part of the offseason by signing three veteran pitchers to one-year deals with one-year options: Colon, Dickey and Josh Collmenter, who re-signed as a starter/reliever.
Adding at least two proven starting pitchers was the top priority for the Braves this offseason, and they’ve done it nearly two weeks before Thanksgiving.
The Braves are still in talks to acquire a catcher and a “super utility” bench player. Former Braves catcher Brian McCann is among the possibilities, if the Yankees’ asking price in a trade comes down dramatically from the initial demand months ago for both Ender Inciarte and Mike Foltynewicz.
The Braves have also talked to the agents for several free-agent catchers including Jason Castro, Nick Hundley and Matt Wieters.
