Bartolo Colon Angling For Mets Return After Max Scherzer's Injury

With Mad Max on the shelf, the Mets could soon set their sights on Big Sexy.

You read that right, as the now 48-year-old Bartolo Colon reportedly isn't content with retiring just yet. Just two years after Colon said he wouldn't officially hang 'em up, he continues to throw bullpen sessions in hope of receiving an opportunity with New York.

MLB insider Hector Gomez posted a video of Colon throwing Friday, which had Twitter buzzing for a return of perhaps the most electric pitcher to ever grace a mound.

The Mets remain in first place in the NL East (26-14), but are in dire need of pitching with Max Scherzer out for six to eight weeks with an oblique strain, Jacob DeGrom still out with a stress reaction on his right scapula and Tylor Megill on the 15-day Injured List with biceps tendinitis.

Colon currently pitches for Acereros de Monclova in the Mexican League, where he posted a 4.55 ERA last season. He last appeared in MLB with the Rangers in 2018, where he went 7-12 in 28 appearances (24 starts) with a 5.78 ERA and 81 strikeouts.

Even though the front half of Colon's career was quite stellar, which included an American League Cy Young Award with the Angels in 2005, most fans probably remember the New York version of Colon, where he became Big Sexy.

You might remember the 2015-16 Mets' starting rotation, an All-Star cast consisting of DeGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard. Three flame throwers any baseball fan would pay to see at the time. But Colon was also a member of that staff and was named a National League All-Star in 2016 at the age of 43.

An All-Star appearance was remarkable in itself for Colon, but not as much so as his heroics on May 7, 2016. Forced to hit due to the Senior Circuit's rule of having pitchers come up to the plate, Colon took Padres RHP James Shields yard to become the oldest player in MLB history to hit his first career home run.

A returning Colon, as crazy as it sounds, wouldn't even crack the top-10 in oldest players to appear in a MLB game. RHP Satchel Paige made his final appearance in the show in 1965, when he was 59 years old.

The most recent player on that list is LHP Jamie Moyer, who stepped on the mound for the final time in 2012 at 49 years of age.