The Braves have signed their second starting pitcher in as many days, as they’ve agreed to a one-year, $12.5 million deal with free agent Bartolo Colon. Ken Rosenthal reported the terms of the deal first, and it’s still pending a physical.
Braves sign Bartolo Colon, giving us all more Bartolo Colon
Rejoice, for we have been blessed with another year of Bartolo Colon in our lives.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
On Thursday, Atlanta signed R.A. Dickey to a one-year contract, so they’ve already accomplished one of their major offseason goals: find actual human beings who can reliably throw a baseball without embarrassing themselves. This was a problem area for the Braves in 2016, who had one starter better than league average in Julio Teheran, and ... that was it. Matt Wisler and Mike Foltynewicz alternated between promise and pain, with both ending up below-average, and those two, plus Teheran, were the only three starters to even last long enough to make at least 20 starts.
Colon’s 120 ERA+ with the Mets would have been second on the Braves, and his 191 innings would have led the team. The addition of Colon, plus Dickey’s 170 just-below-average frames, should do wonders for a rebuilding Braves team — especially if both are performing well enough at the trade deadline that Atlanta can move them for something they can use in the future.
That’s off in the distance, though. What we know is that this is a fast and smart move by the Braves to lock up arms that could be useful to them in more ways than one. And that we get to see not just another year of Bartolo Colon on the mound, but at the plate, too, thanks to National League rules.
Good going, Braves. We all owe you a debt.
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