Bartolo Colon

Colon's career looked finished after he was released by the Braves in June after posting an 8.14 ERA. He turned his season around after signing with the Twins in July and gave some stability to the rotation with a 4.09 ERA and averaging just over six innings in his first nine starts. He faded in September (7.56 ERA), losing four of his final six starts. He basically has one pitch these days, but has amazing command and movement on his fastball despite little velocity left (87.8 mph average) from his early flame-throwing days. He likely showed enough to continue pitching at age 44, but his initial hot streak with the Twins may be his swan song.

The ageless Colon kept on ticking during his age-43 season, putting together another solid campaign with the Mets. Colon entered the year as the team's fifth starter and again provided consistent back-end value, producing his fourth consecutive season with at least 190 innings pitched. There's still no flash to his game, as his fastball tops out at around 90 mph, but he is effective when it counts. Colon posted a 16.2 percent strikeout rate and an impressive 4.1 percent walk rate en route to a 3.43 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. He'll pitch for his ninth MLB team in 2017, as the Braves inked the veteran to one-year deal for $12.5 million. Staying in the NL East is a good thing for Colon's 2017 fantasy value. We can likely expect his overall numbers to remain about the same as they have been for the past couple of seasons, though he may receive less run support and thus fewer wins.

Colon has emerged as the best pound-for-pound GIF generator in MLB over his first two seasons with the Mets. Fortunately, the show will go on for another year after he re-signed with the Mets in December. The recipe hasn't changed much since his return to the big leagues with the Yankees in 2011. Pound the strike zone, rinse, wash, repeat. While chewing up at least 150 innings annually over the past four seasons, Colon has maintained a walk rate below 1.5 BB/9 (and below 4.0% BB% in each season). Nobody puts baby in a corner, and nobody walks on Bart. The peripherals should be good enough to generate a sub-4.00 ERA, but that hasn't happened for him yet in New York. Colon will open 2016 as the Mets' temporary fifth starter as Zack Wheeler finishes his recovery from Tommy John surgery, and he will shift to long relief if the club's quintet of young talented starters all manage to be healthy at the same time.

Colon’s season looks like he regressed severely as his ERA rose from 2.65 to 4.09, but his FIP says he wasn't quite that good in 2013, and not nearly as bad in 2014 with a 3.23 and 3.57, respectively. The shift to the National League afforded him the requisite boost in strikeout rate, although it wasn't just feasting on pitchers. He still would've been up two percentage points even if you remove his 16 punchouts of opposing pitchers. The problem with his season is that he was either excellent or terrible. He allowed five or more earned runs in eight starts which accounted for 53% of his runs allowed, but he also had 20 quality starts during his 31 turns including 16 where he allowed two or fewer runs. This is now four straight seasons of utility in a variety of formats, but it will be easy to doubt the 42-year-old heading into the season once again. The disaster risk is already built in to his price, making him a useful late target if you believe the skills can hold up for another year.

A year after Colon's reemergence ended in a PED suspension, he came back even stronger in 2013, compiling a 2.65 ERA (good for second in the American League) over 30 starts. At age 40, Colon somehow managed to make the All-Star team, finish sixth in the AL Cy Young voting and leading the American League with three complete game shutouts. Colon routinely pounds the strike zone and he led the AL with 48.9 percent of his pitches finding the strike zone. His strikeout rate remains low (5.5 K/9), but he uses solid control to routinely keep runners off base. The A's signed Scott Kazmir to fortify their rotation, effectively sending Colon packing. He signed a two-year deal with the Mets in December, where he is expected to stabilize a rotation that will likely be without the services of Matt Harvey in 2014.

What started as a feel good reclamation project fell off a cliff rapidly when Colon was suspended 50 games for testing positive for testosterone in August. Before the suspension, Colon had somehow found a way to get hitters out despite a rapidly declining strikeout rate. It is hard to see his smoke and mirrors act working out again, but he did help fantasy owners with a 3.66 ERA in 152.1 innings. The A's have gone back to the well once more on Colon, signing him to a one-year deal for 2013, which means at least his home starts should be useful again for those in deeper leagues. He still has five games left on his PED suspension, so he may miss one start.

Colon came out of nowhere to stabilize the Yankees rotation in the first half of 2011, going 5-3 with a 3.10 ERA and 1.072 WHIP in his first 11 appearances. He wasn't the same after injuring his hamstring in mid-June, however, going 3-7 with a 4.81 ERA and 1.488 WHIP the rest of the way. It's possible he just ran out of gas, as Colon hadn't pitched more than 99.1 innings since 2005. Colon showed good movement and location on his fastball for much of 2011, and his resurgence makes him an intriguing endgame option for deeper formats if it's clear that he'll get an opportunity to start again this season. He'll get that opportunity in Oakland, where he signed in January.

Colon had some modest success in May and June, throwing harder than the Boston organization thought he would, before landing on the disabled list with a strained back, suffered while swinging a bat during an inter-league game. It took two months to get over the back injury, but there were no spots in the starting rotation for him when he returned. Rather than relieve, as the club wanted, Colon left the team in September for a personal trip to the Dominican Republic and never returned. He'll try to become a starter again and compete for a spot in the White Sox rotation this spring.

Colon's 2007 season was one he'd like to forget. After missing the second half of 2006 with a torn rotator cuff, Colon struggled with ankle, triceps and elbow injuries. He finished 6-8 with a 6.34 ERA and was even demoted to the bullpen late in the season. Don't expect Colon to resemble anything close to the pitcher that won the AL Cy Young award only three seasons ago. He'll need to prove he's healthy to win a rotation spot this spring.

That'll teach him to steal other people's awards. A year after winning Johan Santana's Cy Young, Colon missed most of the second half with a torn right rotator cuff. He's rehabbing instead of undergoing surgery, the riskier path. There's little chance he pitches effectively in 2007.

The 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner (courtesy of the run support that Johan Santana didn't get), Colon was kept off the Angels ALCS roster by a strain in the back of his pitching shoulder. He began a throwing and rehab program in mid-November with no negative reports at publication time. If he returns healthy, look for him to return to the upper-echelon of starting pitchers again in 2006.

Maddeningly inconsistent yet reliably overweight, Colon is far too hittable to be a marquee frontline starter anymore, fantasy or otherwise. He'll turn 32 in the spring, so the Colon we saw for 2003 may be as good as it gets. Since he pitches on the Angels, he might fit as part of a wins-and-strikeouts plan, but even then he could be a net negative. On the plus side, he'll probably be available later than usual in drafts, so he won't be a major gamble. And if he has a solid April, deal him before he implodes.

Colon won 'only' 15 games in 2003, and an inflated homer rate lifted his ERA (3.87) back to its usual level, but his K and BB rates were actually better than his 'breakout' 2002. Colon definitely seems to be improving with age, and 2004 could very well be the true breakout.

Colon became only the second pitcher in history, and the first in 57 years, to win 10 games in each league in the same year. His numbers between the two leagues were uncannily similar (10 wins, 4 losses, 75:31 K:BB ratio in 116 AL innings; 10 wins, 4 losses, 74:39 ratio in 117 NL innings). He'll be the Opening Day Starter for the White Sox following their trade for him in January.