Wednesday the Braves re-acquired Roman Colon from the Pirates for cash considerations. He appears to be a classic 4A player. As a minor leaguer he compiled a 3.92 ERA and a 1.351 WHIP a little 1080 innings as both a starter and a reliever, he also spent parts of six seasons in the majors with the Braves in 2004/2005, Tigers in 2005/2006 and Royals in 2009/2010 and 2012. In the majors he has a career 5.19 ERA and 1.511 WHIP in 187 1/3 innings. Colon’s racked up lots of frequent flyer miles as what’s called a much traveled player.
The Braves originally signed Colon back in 1995 as an amateur free agent. He began his minor league career in rookie ball in 1997 and remained in the system until 2005 reaching AAA. In July of 2005 the was traded along with Zach Miner to the Tigers for Kyle Farnsworth. Two years later the Tigers traded Colon to the Royals for Daniel Christensen; the Royals released him in 2010 and he landed with Kia in the Korean Baseball Organization.
In 2011 he was back in the U.S. in the Dodgers minor league system. They released him after that season and he returned to the Royals in 2012′; the Royals released him after last season. In February he signed with the Pirates and was assigned to Indianapolis where he appeared in one game for 1/3 of an inning allowing one run on one hit – a homer. The Braves assigned him to Gwinnett where he’s already appeared in one game for one inning allowing 2 runs on 3 hits.
At 33 with his best years behind him it’s hard to see this as anything but minor league depth designed to keep nine players on the field or an opportunity to end his career with the organization that originally signed him.