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With his 246th career win in August 2018, Bartolo Colon surpassed Dennis Martinez for most wins in MLB history by a Latin American-born pitcher; two decades earlier in 1998, Martinez himself had broken the previous record held by Juan Marichal. While Marichal was a surefire Hall of Fame pitcher, both Colon and Martinez were longtime workhorses and at times, staff aces, who pitched more than 20+ years apiece and were consistently good, sometimes great. As two of the best Latin American pitchers ever with similar overall careers spanning well into their 40s, it makes for a natural comparison:
Who was better – Bartolo Colon or Dennis Martinez?
The Beginning
As youngsters in Latin American, both Colon and Martinez showed early promise and were signed as amateur free agents by major league clubs, but each would develop gradually before becoming an ace starting pitcher.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Colon grew up working on a farm and was signed as an amateur free agent at the age of 20 by the Cleveland Indians. Gradually working his way up the team’s farm system (and excelling while doing so), he made his major league debut in 1997, but struggled as a rookie, going 4-7 with a 5.65 ERA (83 ERA+, which is an advanced statistic that adjusts a pitcher’s ERA for both his ballpark and the league-wide ERA; 100 is average), 1.62 WHIP, and 66 strikeouts in 94.0 innings pitched.
Martinez likewise grew up on a farm in Nicaragua as the youngest of seven children and was eventually spotted and signed by the Baltimore Orioles as a 19-year-old. He also spent a handful of seasons in the Orioles’ minor league system before briefly making his big league debut in the 1976 season (four games and two starts). In his first full MLB season in 1977, Martinez assumed a hybrid starter/reliever role (42 total games pitched, with 13 games started and 19 games finished) and pitched to a 14-7 record with 4 saves, a 4.10 ERA (93 ERA+), 1.33 WHIP, and 107 strikeouts in 166.2 innings pitched.
Career Comparison
Across more than two decades in MLB apiece, Colon and Martinez both had up-and-down major league careers – each pitched in both the AL and NL, and at one point seemed washed up before reinventing himself and experiencing pitching success well into his 40s.
Despite the rocky start to his MLB career, Colon soon developed into a top-of-the-rotation starter, going 14-9 in 1998 with a 3.71 ERA (128 ERA+), 1.39 WHIP, and 158 strikeouts in 204.0 innings pitched to earn the first of four All-Star selections. The following year, he further improved to an 18-5 record with a 3.95 ERA (126 ERA+), 1.27 ERA, and 161 strikeouts in 205.0 innings pitched to finish fourth for the AL Cy Young. Over the next couple of seasons, Colon was a consistent 200+ inning, 200+ strikeout pitcher with an ERA around 4; midway through the 2002 season, however, he was traded by the Indians to the then Montreal Expos in a blockbuster deal along with Tim Drew for Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Grady Sizemore, and Cliff Lee – with identical 10-4 records across both Cleveland and Montreal, Colon finished the season 20-8 with a 2.93 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, and 149 strikeouts in 233.1 innings pitched for a sixth-place NL Cy Young showing.
Colon’s time with the budget-conscious Expos was limited, as he was then moved ahead of the 2003 season to the Chicago White Sox with Jorge Nunez for Orlando Hernandez, Rocky Biddle, Jeff Liefer, and cash. After another solid, workmanlike season in which he tossed a career-high 242.0 innings, the free agent Colon signed with the Anaheim Angels – though he struggled in his first year with the Angels (18-12 record, but with a 5.01 ERA), he quickly rebounded in 2005 to a career-best and league-leading 21-8 record with a 3.48 ERA (122 ERA+), a career-low 1.16 WHIP, and 157 strikeouts in 222.2 innings pitched, thus making a second All-Star Game and easily winning the AL Cy Young Award, in the process becoming the first Angels pitcher to win the award since Dean Chance in 1964. Unfortunately, the rest of his tenure with the Angels was marred by injury. In fact, in the four seasons after his Cy Young win (two with the Angels, one with the Boston Red Sox, and one back with the White Sox), Colon made no more than 18 starts in any year and failed to reach double-digit wins in any season; he would then sit out the entire 2010 season with shoulder issues.
As a 38-year-old in 2011, Colon joined the New York Yankees and had a respectable season (8-10 with a 4.00 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 164.1 innings pitched) before signing with the Oakland Athletics – at an age when most players have retired, he experienced a bit of a renaissance, surprisingly going 18-6 with a career-best 2.65 ERA (147 ERA+), 1.17 WHIP, and 117 strikeouts in 190.1 innings pitched to garner another All-Star nod and place sixth for AL Cy Young. His next stop was the New York Mets – across three seasons with the team, he won at least 14 games each year, including a final All-Star campaign in 2016 at age 43 (15-8 with a 3.43 ERA and 1.21 WHIP), and became just the third Dominican-born player to reach 200 career wins (after the aforementioned Marichal and Pedro Martinez). For the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Colon bounced around between the Atlanta Braves, the Minnesota Twins, and the Texas Rangers – overall, he struggled, but in his 2018 season with Texas (his final MLB season and 11th MLB team at age 45), he surpassed Marichal for most career wins by a Dominican-born pitcher and Martinez for most career wins by a Latin American-born pitcher.
Upon becoming a full-time starter in 1978, Martinez similarly established himself as a workhorse pitcher, going 16-11 with a 3.52 ERA (100 ERA+), 1.27 WHIP, and 142 strikeouts in 276.1 innings pitched. As an encore, he led the league in innings pitched in 1979 (a career-high 292.1 innings and a league-best 18 complete games) to the tune of a 15-16 record with a 3.66 ERA (110 ERA+), 1.22 WHIP, and 132 strikeouts. Overall, his best season with the Orioles may have been the strike-shortened 1981 season, when he led the league with a 14-5 record, along with a 3.32 ERA (110 ERA+), 1.31 WHIP, and 88 strikeouts in 99.2 innings pitched to finish fifth for AL Cy Young. However, after another solid season in 1982, ongoing substance abuse led to a decrease in effectiveness on the mound as his ERA ballooned above 5 for three consecutive seasons (including a career-worst 7-16 record in 1983 and only one winning season during that span). As he continued to struggle in 1986, Martinez was traded early in the season to the Expos for players to be named later.
Supposedly on the wrong side of 30, Martinez was given a new lease on life in Canada and responded with his best pitching in years – in his first full season with the Expos in 1987, he was 11-4 with a 3.30 ERA (128 ERA+), 1.20 WHIP, and 84 strikeouts in 144.2 innings pitched. Moreover, for the next half-dozen years, he was among the best pitchers in the NL, including three straight All-Star seasons in the early 1990s with sub-3 ERAs:
- 1990: 10-11 record with a 2.95 ERA (124 ERA+), 1.06 WHIP, and 156 strikeouts in 232.0 innings pitched
- 1991: 14-11 record (including a league-leading 9 complete games and 5 shutouts, as well as only the 13th perfect game in MLB history) with a league-best and career-best 2.39 ERA (153 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, and 123 strikeouts in 222.0 innings pitched; fifth for NL Cy Young
- 1992: 16-11 record with a 2.47 ERA (141 ERA+), a career-low 1.03 WHIP, and 147 strikeouts in 226.1 innings pitched
In his final year with Montreal in 1993, the 39-year-old Martinez went 15-9 to reach 200 career wins and also become just the seventh pitcher in MLB history with 100 wins in both the AL and NL
As a free agent in 1994, Martinez signed with the Cleveland Indians and remained an ace pitcher in his early 40s for a couple more season; notably, he posted a final All-Star campaign at age 41 in 1995 with a 12-5 record, 3.08 ERA (152 ERA+), 1.18 WHIP, and 99 strikeouts in 187.0 innings pitched. After a final season with the Indians in 1996, he spent his last two MLB seasons with the Seattle Mariners and Atlanta Braves; though mostly forgettable, he did surpass Marichal for most career wins by a Latin American-born pitcher and would hold that record for two decades (until he himself was surpassed by Colon, of course).
All in all, Martinez pitched 23 MLB seasons to Colon’s 21, resulting in nearly 140 additional appearances and more than 500 extra innings pitched. Despite this longevity gap, the latter had more wins with fewer losses and struck out more batters, though the former had better pitching ratios and hurled more shutouts. From a season-by-season comparison, Colon holds the edge in both 15-win seasons (9x to 7x) and 20-win seasons (2x vs. none; in fact, Martinez has the most career wins of any pitcher in MLB history without a 20-win season), as well as in 200-strikeout campaigns (2 to 0); while both pitchers made four All-Star appearances, Colon has a Cy Young Award vs. Martinez’s lone ERA title. When you encapsulate their respective careers into one number using Wins Above Replacement (WAR), Martinez comes out slightly ahead at 48.7 to 45.8; as great as both pitchers were in terms of both longevity and peak greatness, their overall career numbers and accomplishments fall just short of Cooperstown – Martinez was first eligible in 2004, but fell off the ballot after one year, whereas Colon will not become eligible until at least 2024 (assuming he does not pitch in MLB again).
Regular Season Statistics
| Bartolo Colon | Player | Dennis Martinez |
| 21 (1997-2009, 2011-2018) | Seasons | 23 (1976-1998) |
| 565 | Games Played | 692 |
| 3,461.2 | Innings Pitched | 3,999.2 |
| 247-188 | W-L Record | 245-193 |
| – | Saves | 8 |
| 4.12 | ERA | 3.70 |
| 106 | ERA+ | 106 |
| 1.31 | WHIP | 1.27 |
| 2,535 | Strikeouts | 2,149 |
| 13 | Shutouts | 30 |
| 45.8 | Wins Above Replacement | 48.7 |
| 4x | All-Star Games | 4x |
| – | MVP | – |
| 1x | Cy Young | – |
| – | World Series Titles | – |
| – | Other Awards | 1x ERA |
| – | Hall of Fame Induction | – |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Despite their longevity, neither Colon nor Martinez managed to pitch their teams to a World Series title, though both did come close on at least one occasion.
In seven playoff appearances with four different teams (3x Indians, 2x Angels, 1x Athletics, 1x Mets), Colon was generally solid, if unspectacular; individually, his best performance came in the 1998 ALCS vs. the Yankees, when he pitched a complete game victory with 1 earned run in Game 3 vs. Andy Pettitte, though Cleveland would ultimately lose in six games. In fact, it was not until his age 42 season with the Mets in 2015 that Colon advanced to the World Series (a five-game loss to the Kansas City Royals), but by that point, he was pitching out of the bullpen during the postseason.
Similarly, Martinez’s postseason appearances were few and far between – in 1979, he helped guide the Orioles to the World Series vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates, but gave up 4 earned runs in just 2.0 innings pitched across a pair of appearances as Baltimore fell in seven games; though he was not part of the Orioles’ postseason roster that won the 1983 World Series (due to his ongoing substance abuse issues), he nevertheless received a championship ring. Much later on in his career, Martinez was the ace of the Indians team that made it to the 1995 World Series vs. the Braves – in a six-game loss, he lost Game 2 to Tom Glavine by a 4-3 score and then, pitched 4.2 scoreless innings for a no-decision in the deciding Game 6, again vs. the winning pitcher in Glavine.
Playoff Statistics
| Bartolo Colon | Player | Dennis Martinez |
| 17 | Games Played | 12 |
| 67.0 | Innings Pitched | 43.1 |
| 3-5 | W-L Record | 2-2 |
| – | Saves | – |
| 3.49 | ERA | 3.32 |
| 1.37 | WHIP | 1.25 |
| 52 | Strikeouts | 18 |
| – | Shutouts | – |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; from young ace to mid-career slumps (due to injuries or other issues), both Colon and Martinez had mid-career renaissances that allowed them to be effective starting pitchers well into their late 30s and early 40s. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Bartolo Colon | Player | Dennis Martinez |
| 1998-2003, 2005, 2012-2013, 2016 | Decade of Dominance | 1978, 1981, 1987-1992, 1994-1995 |
| 315 | Games Played | 302 |
| 2,051.0 | Innings Pitched | 2,105.1 |
| 160-86 | W-L Record | 135-84 |
| – | Saves | – |
| 3.55 | ERA | 3.03 |
| 1.26 | WHIP | 1.17 |
| 1,547 | Strikeouts | 1,193 |
| 10 | Shutouts | 21 |
| 45.8 | Wins Above Replacement | 41.2 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Interestingly, when you look at the better halves of their careers (i.e. best decades), Colon and Martinez are reasonably matched – the former had a better win-loss record with more strikeouts and more WAR, but the latter had better peripheral statistics.
My Thoughts
Though not quite Hall of Fame players, both Bartolo Colon and Dennis Martinez nevertheless each had memorable and in many ways, iconic careers. Pitching two decades in MLB is no small feat, and to do so after rebounding from mid-career swoons perhaps makes it even more remarkable; add in the fact that they are the two winningest pitchers in baseball history from Latin America and you have a pair of pitching careers that not only have longevity and numbers, but also an indelible impact. Between the pair, despite Colon’s Cy Young win, I have to give the small advantage to Martinez – overall, the Nicaraguan ace was a little more durable, a little more dominant at his peak (e.g. his Expos years and even his first couple of seasons with the Indians), and has slightly better career numbers despite not having overpowering stuff. On the other hand, though, Colon is undoubtedly one of the more colorful/memorable characters in baseball history, no doubt buoyed by his unconventional rotund physique – see the joy across baseball when he became the oldest player in MLB history to hit his first career home run at age 42!
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Dennis Martinez
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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