The Dodgers Didn’t Claim Bartolo Colon

In case you were wondering how badly the Dodgers were concerned about a starting rotation that has recently had Dan Haren, Kevin Correia and Roberto Hernandez in it, apparently the answer is “not that bad.” Bartolo Colon cleared waivers, meaning that no team claimed him and he’s now eligible to be traded to anyone. It’s a bit surprising that Colon made it through, because despite his appearance, he’s long been an effective starter — he’s keeping it up this year with a 3.82 ERA / 3.35 FIP — largely because he absolutely refuses to walk anyone, with just 22 walks in 167.1 innings this year.

He also looks funny when he bats.

You’d have thought that the Angels (now without Garrett Richards or Tyler Skaggs) or someone else desperate for starting pitching would have put a claim in. Perhaps the $12m due him for the remainder of this season and through 2015 scared them off, but honestly, what’s $12m in baseball these days, especially for a pitcher who seems to be able to pump out endless 2-3 win seasons? He’s no star, but he’s average to slightly above, and for a lot of teams, that’s a big upgrade.

For the Dodgers, with two days off this week and Hyun-jin Ryu coming back soon to bump Correia to the bullpen, maybe the need wasn’t so acute. If you want to argue that Colon wouldn’t be a substantial enough upgrade on Hernandez to bother, I don’t know that I’d agree, but I’d understand. Of course, that assumes that you don’t think Zack Greinke‘s elbow is going to be a problem, or that Ryu’s return will be totally fine, or that you’re okay with one of the veteran trio at the back end starting a potential Game 4 in a playoff series.

I don’t know that I’d be able to sleep soundly at night with all of that risk. I mean, I’ll sleep great, because I’m not running the team, and we of course don’t know what kind of return the Mets would want, though it was unlikely to be much. Since every team in the bigs passed up the opportunity, clearly they must all know something we don’t. As usual, the only thing we know for sure is this: waivers are really dumb and make no sense.