General manager Ken Williams draped a White Sox jersey over Bartolo Colon’s shoulders and said to his heavyset right-hander: “Welcome aboard, big guy. Nice to have you.”
Colon, who speaks little English, replied: “Where’s my hat?”
Before long Colon had a black Sox cap to go with his pinstriped uniform, which bore the No. 40.
The 29-year-old Colon is a big man, and his acquisition brings big hopes to the South Side.
“We have championship dreams here,” Williams said Monday at Comiskey Park. “Trust me, there are a lot of moves you can make that are the safe moves. But if you don’t step out there from time to time and put your reputation on the line in an effort to bring a championship club here, you’re not doing a service to the club or the city.”
Williams heard the rumors that Colon’s weight had ballooned in the off-season and that he had fared poorly in two starts in the Dominican Winter League.
But two years after getting burned by David Wells and his exploding waistline, Williams was not about to hold off on trading for Colon, a flame-thrower with a career record of 85-49.
“A lot of organizations will float things out there in hopes that it makes others back off,” Williams said. “If you don’t do your own homework, some of these things can lead you down the wrong road.
“Some of the rumors had him 30-35 pounds overweight, and that’s just not the case.”
With the 5-foot-11-inch Colon, overweight is a relative term.
Although he’s listed at 240 pounds, he began spring training of 2002 weighing 259 pounds. Colon said he didn’t know his current weight but said through an interpreter: “I feel a lot lighter than I did last year entering spring training.”
Colon said it doesn’t bother him to be asked about his weight.
“It makes him feel more conscious of his weight because people are watching him,” said translator Adrianna Merigliano, whom Colon’s agent hired. “He says his whole family is heavy.”
Williams is not concerned.
“He looks good to me, actually,” he said. “Am I going to worry about five pounds here or five pounds there? No. I’ll tell you what, I want him to weigh the same he did last year and do the same things.”
Colon dominated both leagues last season, going 10-4 with a 2.55 ERA for Cleveland and 10-4, 3.31 for Montreal.
Colon has started the last three Opening Days but knows he might not get the ball for the Sox’s March 31 opener at Kansas City. If he starts in the season’s second game on April 2, he would be in line to face Cleveland in its home opener April 7.
Colon said he would leave that decision to Sox management.
Mark Buehrle, who won 19 games and threw 239 innings in 2002, said last week that he viewed Colon as the team’s “No. 1 guy.” So who will be top dog: the burly right-hander or the left-hander named Buehrle?
Williams said manager Jerry Manuel has made up his mind.
Is it Colon?
“I don’t know. . . . I’m not going to say,” Williams responded. “It really is for Jerry to say. And it may turn out the No. 1 guy or No. 2 guy matches up better with a certain team as we line up the schedule. It may have something to do with a matchup in May.”
The Sox, suddenly a team with two aces, are grateful to have such a predicament.
