Rangers prepared to let Bartolo Colon do what he does

Bartolo Colon makes his first-career start for the Texas Rangers Monday night in the series opener against the Athletics in Oakland.

Colon has pitched with 11 teams, including two years for Oakland in 2012-13 when he compiled a 28-15 record with a 2.99 ERA over 342 2/3 innings.

At 44 (he turns 45 on May 24), there isn't a whole lot of coaching (or managing) Colon needs.

"I expect that he’s going to go out and throw strikes and have a veteran outing," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "Manage through the innings and give us an opportunity. He’s got a lot of practice at it. "

That's for sure. It will be Colon's 529th start, tied for 36th most all-time with Eddie Plank and Rick Reuschel. Among active players, either Colon or C.C. Sabathia lead in almost every pitching career category. He goes into Monday's start with 240 wins, 2,454 strikeouts and 3,315 1/3 innings. Colon declined to talk before Monday's start.

"I don’t know if there’s anybody pitching in the major leagues right now who has had more pitches thrown," Banister said. "He’s worked at a lot. He’s had to transform himself from being a power pitcher to more of a control pitcher."

The Rangers will have to make a move to add Colon to the roster before Monday's game. And then they'll have to decide what they want out of him going forward once Martin Perez returns from the disabled list. Perez is expected to start Thursday's finale at Oakland. Eventually, the Rangers want the rotation to be Cole Hamels, Doug Fister, Perez, Matt Moore, and Mike Minor, who pitched Sunday.

This story was originally published April 1, 2018 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Rangers prepared to let Bartolo Colon do what he does."