A's Agree to Terms with RHP Bartolo Colon on One-Year Contract

January 24, 2012

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland A’s agreed to terms with right-handed pitcher Bartolo Colon on a one-year contract for the 2012 season, the club announced today.

Colon went 8-10 with a 4.00 ERA in 29 games, 26 starts, for the New York Yankees last year. He allowed a .267 opponents batting average and ranked 10th in the American League with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.38. The 38-year-old former Cy Young Award winner opened the season in the Yankees’ bullpen but moved into the starting rotation April 20. He went 5-2 with a 2.96 ERA over his first 10 starts before going on the disabled list June 12 with a strained left hamstring. After being reinstated July 2, he registered a 3-7 mark and 4.81 ERA over his final 16 starts.

A two-time All-Star in 1998 and 2005, Colon has a 161-113 record and a 4.09 ERA in 357 games, 351 starts, in 14 seasons with six teams. Among pitchers active at the end of the 2011 season, he ranked sixth in complete games (32), tied for sixth in shutouts (9) and tied for ninth in wins. His 161 wins are third-most among Dominican-born pitchers behind Juan Marichal (243) and Pedro Martinez (219). Colon also ranks third in games started, innings pitched (2241) and strikeouts.

Colon made his Major League debut with Cleveland in 1997 and won 10 or more games in five consecutive seasons, including 2002 when he went 10-4 with a 2.55 ERA before being traded to Montreal in late June. He went on to win 10 games with the Expos and combined for a 20-8 record and a 2.93 ERA that year. Colon won 15 games with the Chicago White Sox in 2003 before signing a four-year contract with Anaheim.

Colon posted an 18-12 record despite a 5.01 ERA in his first seasons with the Angels in 2004 and then won the American League Cy Young Award in 2005 after going 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA. From 1998-2005, he was the only Major League pitcher to win at least 14 games in each season. However, he has made just 73 starts since then, going 22-31 with a 4.72 ERA in two more seasons with Los Angeles (2006-07), one with Boston (2008), another with the White Sox (2009) and last year with New York. Colon did not pitch in the majors in 2010.