Former major league infielder Christian Colon is set to retire from baseball, MLBTR has learned. He will hang up his spikes after playing in the big leagues for three different teams across six seasons. Colon hopes to continue his life in baseball as a coach and one day manage in the big leagues.
Colon was selected by the Padres in the 10th round of the 2007 draft, out of Canyon High School in Anaheim, California. Just 18 years old at the time, Colon instead opted to attend California State University, Fullerton. Three years later, in the 2010 draft, the Kansas City Royals selected Colon in the first round, fourth overall.
The Royals were deep in the midst of a rebuild at the time, with 2010 marking their seventh consecutive losing season, in what would eventually be a nine-year streak. Those poor big league results allowed the team to have a series of high draft picks, which they used to launch a return to competition. Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Mike Montgomery and Colon were all first-round selections of the Royals between 2005 and 2010. All of that group except for Montgomery eventually formed the core of the Royals club that made the World Series in consecutive years, losing to the Giants in 2014 and defeating the Mets in 2015. (Montgomery contributed indirectly, as he was part of the trade with the Rays that sent James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City.)
Colon climbed the ranks of the Royals’ farm system, eventually making his debut in 2014. He got into 21 games that year, hitting .333/.375/.489 over 49 plate appearances. He only got a couple of plate appearances in that 2014 postseason run for the Royals, both of which came in the Wild Card Game against the Athletics. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the tenth, laying down a successful sacrifice bunt. He stayed in the game and, after Oakland took the lead in the top of the 12th, Colon hit a game-tying single in the bottom of the inning. Moments later, Colon would score the game-winning run on Salvador Perez’s walk-off hit.
In 2015, Colon got 119 plate appearances over 43 games, hitting .290/.356/.336. As the Royals reached the fifth game of the World Series with a 3-1 series lead, Colon hadn’t had a plate appearance in four weeks. As the game stretched into extras, the Royals called on Colon to pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot in the top of the 12th. With Jarrod Dyson on second base, Colon lined a single into left, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead. They would eventually pour it on and win the game 7-2, and capturing their first World Series title since 1985.
Colon would go on to play for the Marlins and Reds in the Majors, spending most of 2021 at Triple-A for the Blue Jays. In total, Colon played 161 games over his six seasons and hit .254/.315/.378. He played an important role in building the Kansas City team that eventually won the World Series, and can look back fondly on his postseason heroics. MLBTR congratulates Colon on a fine career and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.
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