December 11, 2013 13-14 Offseason Joe Janish

Mets Agree To Sign Bartolo Colon

So much for yesterday’s claim / complaint that the Mets won’t sign a pitcher to a multi-year deal — according to various reports, the Mets and Bartolo Colon have agreed to a two-year, $20M contract, pending a physical.

~~Omar Minaya~~ Sandy Alderson finally gets his man.

Comment away …

Joe Janish

Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.

argonbunnies December 11, 2013 at 9:31 pm

I like it. To justify $20 mil, all Colon has to do is repeat his recent success for one season, or simply be Not Bad for two seasons.

I also like watching guys who throw strikes. The Mets will need to catch the ball, though. Colon doesn’t walk people, but he doesn’t strike people out either. How’s that middle infield coming along?
Chris from Freehold December 11, 2013 at 9:33 pm

He eats innings (and apparently everything else in arm’s reach.) And he can always be sent away in a deadline deal (if he doesnt get hurt at the buffet table.) But I am really hungry for a major league shortstop.
jgills December 11, 2013 at 9:48 pm

Got to say, good signing. And at 10 mil, its relatively cheap for a 18 game winner. But at 40 yrs old and a weight listed at 260, which seems a bit fictitious , there is a concern. I still like it. Just going to keep me fingers crossed we get the Colon the A’s enjoyed.
Joe December 11, 2013 at 9:51 pm

I agree with the overall flavor of all three comments.
DanB December 11, 2013 at 10:36 pm

What do you think, does it mean the Mets have finally hit bottom on the payroll and heading back up? Or will this force the Mets to trade Davis, Neese, and Murphy to keep the payroll under $85 million?
- crozier December 12, 2013 at 1:29 am
  
  Murphy, Davis, and pitching prospect for decent leadoff guy? Sign me up.
  - argonbunnies December 12, 2013 at 2:12 am
    
    Get Billy Hamilton, and move him back to SS?
- jgills December 12, 2013 at 10:58 am
  
  I’m getting a feeling that the Colon contract has a secondary purpose in showing Scott Boras that they’re (Mets) are willing to sign FAs. Stephen Drew is running out of teams in need of a veteran SS. His terms of monetary and length demands might also be shrinking. I’m not too high on Drew, but at a good price he would be a big upgrade.
Colin December 12, 2013 at 10:55 am

Lets be sure to send Mr. Colon a shake-weight with his contract. I just don’t understand why people don’t want to protect Murphy. That guy needs to be a Met forever. Lead the team in almost every offensive stat with the exceptions of walks, homers, and triples, and played in 161 games. He doenst get hurt, he hits the ball all over the ball park including out of the ball park, and despite having a BS wrap about being a defensive liability, the guy plays a solid 2 for us.
- Joe December 12, 2013 at 4:41 pm
  
  He can be streaky and sometimse (as Joe Janish harps on) can have brain freezes as a matter of baseball instincts. But, i would not be opposed to a long term deal at some point. I see him as a “Met,” a label that applies to few here.
  - Andrew Lloyd December 12, 2013 at 6:04 pm
    
    very streaky but when he’s hot, you can’t get him out. But the Mets desperately need him, David Wright and Travis DA to hit for average, since no one else on the roster has a solid history of doing so. That’s how offenses go into deep, dark cold streaks. The kind that tank seasons…
Joe December 12, 2013 at 4:38 pm

I wonder what Joe Janish thinks about the plans to ban home plate collisions.
izzy December 12, 2013 at 6:30 pm

I really love this sign, not because it was a great baseball move, it will probably be the worst move Loserson ever made. But I love it…. Why???? This guy is everything the Alderson fan club has been screaming about for over three years. These cultists, claim every player over thrity, maybe even younger, is two old to sign, they laim every player over thrty is on a severe downward spiral making the sign too risky, they continually berate Minaya for signing old guys like Alou….and here we are, they ignore his age, they ignore his non esistant physical conditioning at his age, they ignore his PED usage as a probable reason for his improbable stats, they ignore the fact that the A’s had to sit him for a few weeks because he was too worn out to pitch every 5 days, they ignore the fact that he could only pitch 160 or so innings. WHY? Because the Loserson signed him so he will defy every law of human aging. Its great seeing this instant reversal in analysis by so many (not on this board).
- DaveSchneck December 12, 2013 at 10:29 pm
  
  Izzy,
  I might have missed it, but I am curious of your take on the Granderson signing. What say you?
  - izzy December 13, 2013 at 10:37 am
    
    Hey Dave, I wrote somewhere about the two red flags I see in him, but he is certainly an improvement over all the pieces of minor league and fringe big league players Alderson has brought in the first 3 years. He is the first legitimate payer this guy has signed. The red flags I see are one everyone ignoring last year. He had two freak breaks but still had over 200ABs and he was pretty mediocre. That following a 2012 where his power didn’t drop but his BA dropped significantly. The second red flag is the Yankees not making any effort to bring him back and then signing an older and supposedly more broken down Beltran to replace him. This is a big red flag for me. But I’m not as negative as Janish and I think its almost impossible for any player to equal Bay’s instantaneous collapse. And if he does turn out that bad, it just brings the Alderson regime to a more rapid conclusion. If he holds his own the offense is much better. So its a win win for Met fans. We either get better or we hopefully get a 21st Century GM.
    But I’m still more thrilled about the old guy signing. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago when an ageless wonder in bullpen was let go and we were told his year was a fluke, he’s too old to get two years, he can’t keep it up. and he only cost a couple mil a year., And that Kazmir who only cost one million more a year, and if he is healthy has upside and would actually excite many Met fans, we couldn’t get him now could we. The whole front office is a bunch of frauds and hypocrites but a perfect fit for the crooked and evil ownership family!
- argonbunnies December 14, 2013 at 8:13 pm
  
  Alderson said he wasn’t a fan of 2nd generation contracts. He didn’t say anything about 4th generation contracts.
  
  Okay, I wrote that as a joke, but it’s true that I’d rather buy a guy’s age 41 season when he’s 40 than when he’s 31. What’s the likelihood that Cano and Pujols will even take the field in the final years of their contracts?
  
  By making it this far, Colon has not only cleared many of the hurdles of age, but also lowered his asking price! Semi-old dudes are overpaid, but really old dudes may be the new market inefficiency!
argonbunnies December 14, 2013 at 8:16 pm

Breaking news: GUESS WHO PASSED A PHYSICAL?!?! THIS GUY

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