Born anew on borrowed time, Bartolo Colon is keeping the Rangers relaxed

Of all the past-his-best-before-date free agents imperiled by this winter's crazy offseason, none seemed a likelier casualty than Bartolo Colon.

As a tepid market forced younger, better starters to settle for pennies on the dollar, Colon's already minimal leverage - the largely qualitative value of his experience - evaporated. His 45th birthday was looming and the right-hander had just stumbled through a miserable season. In 2017, after another defiantly impressive year with the New York Mets, Colon got spanked in both the National and American Leagues, serving up a 8.14 ERA in 13 starts with the Atlanta Braves, then making 15 uninspired starts for the Minnesota Twins after he was released in July. When the curtains finally fell, Colon was responsible for a 6.48 ERA over 143 innings, his fewest in a season since 2009 - before he underwent the controversial elbow surgery that revitalized his career.

In recent years, the soft-tossing, strike-zone-pounding, big-bellied, GIF-inspiring old man had scoffed at the aging curve, morphing into baseball's most eminently entertaining elder statesmen in the process, but his shtick, it seemed, was played.

Thank goodness for that bull.

Just before Christmas, Martin Perez, the Texas Rangers' veteran left-hander and a part-time rancher, got into a scuffle with a bull in his native Venezuela. He lost. The incident necessitated surgery on his non-throwing elbow, and Perez was expected to be sidelined into the early stages of the regular season. About six weeks after Perez got Pamplona'd, with spring training looming and a short-term void to fill in their rotation, the Rangers inked Colon to a minor-league deal.

He passed the audition. Granted a spot on the Opening Day roster, Colon was expected to make a start or two while Perez recovered. That was it.

Now, nearly a month into the 2018 campaign, Colon has arguably been Texas' best pitcher, crafting a 2.59 ERA (179 ERA+) across three starts and a pair of multi-inning relief appearances. By wins above replacement, only Mike Minor has been more valuable to the Rangers. Two weeks ago, Colon nearly tossed a perfect game against the Houston Astros, flummoxing the reigning World Series champs on national television while outdueling Justin Verlander.

Seemingly born anew on borrowed time, he's put the Rangers in a difficult position.

Colon will start Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays. Beyond that, his role - the Rangers' plan, really - remains undecided. Perez is back and Doug Fister has recovered from the right hip strain that forced him to the disabled list in early April. A six-man rotation is a possibility. Colon could also be shifted into a full-time bullpen job, though he's made just 11 regular-season relief appearances in his 21-year career. Even more unlikely, the Rangers could elect to cut him loose, allowing him to pursue a full-time starting gig elsewhere.

For his part, Colon can only continue to pitch when he gets the ball and, well, be himself. Irrespective of what he does on the mound, Bartolo Colon just being Bartolo Colon is beneficial for his teammates, even for an overwhelmingly grey-bearded Rangers staff (with an average age of 31.4 years, no team in the majors has an older group of pitchers than Texas).

Rangers manager Jeff Banister made that clear at the outset of spring training.

"Fascinating human being," Banister told reporters. "Quite a story - just the longevity and still getting after it, still getting hitters out. To have a guy like that with a wealth of experience in camp to compete, it's going to benefit us in so many different ways."

Having spent the last couple months hanging around Colon, veteran left-hander Matt Moore now sees why.

"I think it's fun to watch him go about his day because of how relaxed he makes it look," Moore, a one-time All-Star, recently told theScore. "Most guys in here, you can just see the heightened sense of awareness - except for with Bart, he's got this calmness about him that for me, personally, is something I think that helps bring my level down to something that's a little bit more reasonable. So seeing him, I think, puts guys in a relaxed place, knowing that if you execute your game plan, more times than not you're going to be in a good spot."

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At this point in his career, Colon - who made his big-league debut in 1997, weeks before current teammate Nomar Mazara's second birthday - plays by different rules. When the rest of the pitchers do their pregame sprints, Colon plays catch on the side. When the rest of the pitchers do their pregame stretch, Colon shags fly balls in center field. But nobody begrudges Bartolo. The guy just wants to play. Ahead of Friday's series opener at Rogers Centre, Colon popped out of the dugout, dressed and ready to go, 20 minutes before the Rangers' pitchers were slated to start getting loose.

Of course, with special dispensations come other responsibilities; the role of Clubhouse Dad isn't merely a get-out-of-running card. But even as a new addition to the clubhouse, Colon has handled those duties with aplomb, according to Moore.

"Just from being teammates in spring training, he's always coming up to every single pitcher, every teammate and giving them knucks and saying good morning or good afternoon, or whatever it is," he said. "So in that regard, he doesn't leave anybody out, and that's something that I think, these days, is important."

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Beyond his age and famous heft (they call him Big Sexy for a reason), Colon is still fundamentally distinct from Minor, a reliever trying to make it as a starter again, or Moore, who struggles to consistently pound the strike zone. Colon makes everything seem effortless. On the mound, he's effortlessly effective, pouring in sinkers and inducing ground balls at an almost-elite rate. In the clubhouse, he can boost morale without breaking a sweat. If you've ever seen him swing a bat, you know Colon is effortlessly entertaining, as well. And because it doesn't all come that easily for everyone, Moore insisted, the cool-as-a-cucumber way Colon operates is instructive for everybody in the Rangers' clubhouse.

"His effort level is there, obviously, but you can see he's moreso playing the game," Moore said. "He's not thinking too much. He's just reacting to what the game's giving him. If he throws something backdoor and it doesn't backdoor, he's going to make an adjustment to make it a better pitch. If he throws something inside and the guy's turning early, he reads that, obviously, and then moves to the other side of the plate, or up or down, soft. So I think it's cool to see him just playing the game, chewing bubble gum, just like it's supposed to be."

So long as the Rangers, now 10-17, feel the same way, Colon can continue to cement his status as one of history's most enduring pitchers. Already, he's one of just 16 pitchers in the live-ball era to retire a batter after his age-44 season. Of that group, six are in the Hall of Fame. Barring something truly unexpected, Colon won't join them in Cooperstown, but with each passing appearance - whether as a starter or reliever - he advances his case as the preeminent Old Pitcher of the modern era.

Live-ball era innings leaders, age 45 and up

Whether Colon gets to continue chasing that honor - unofficial as it is - in a Rangers uniform remains to be seen.

For now, though, much like the rest of us, his teammates are relishing the show - recent highlights include Colon besting Dee Gordon in a footrace to first - while also reaping the benefits of being around the smoothest quadragenarian in the game.

"I'm happy for him," Moore said. "I think, obviously, there are some guys that turn this thing into a lifelong type of journey, and he turns out to be one of those guys, so it's pretty cool to see somebody that age being able to get players out still."