On Friday, the Baltimore Orioles announced the signing of 41-year-old veteran starting pitcher Charlie Morton to a one-year, $15 million contract.
The veteran workhorse brings 17 years of major league experience to a relatively young Orioles starting rotation. Morton’s career line sports a 4.01 ERA over the span of 382 career starts in the big leagues.
Last season with the Atlanta Braves, Morton logged a 4.19 ERA in 30 starts. However, towards the tail end of his career, what could he bring to the Orioles’ rotation?
Let’s discuss what Ground Chuck provides in this edition of Battery Breakdown.
1. Innings Eater
Orioles GM Mike Elias, in his tenure, always seems to add one-year stop-gap veteran arms to slot in the middle of the rotation to eat up innings.
The most recent additions would include the likes of Jordan Lyles in 2022 (179 IP) and Kyle Gibson in 2023 (192 IP). With Corbin Burnes (194 IP in 2024) leaving over the offseason to join the Arizona Diamondbacks, no one on the current staff logged more than 135 innings pitched for the Orioles last season.
Morton comes in to fill a role of going deep into ballgames and eating innings to take away stress from the Orioles’ young starting rotation. Excluding the COVID year, Morton has logged more than 160 innings pitched in each year since 2018. He has proven his durability in the majors, which bodes well for an O’s pitching staff that was decimated by injuries in 2024.
2. Pitch Arsenal
Morton displays a five-pitch mix: A curveball (42%), four-seam fastball (29%), changeup (11%), sinker (10%) and cutter (8%).
The 6-foot-5 righty throws out of a three-quarter arm angle, where all of his pitches live in the 21-25% arm slot.
His fastball sits at an average of 94 mph, with 13.6 inches of arm side run. All of his pitches mimic this horizontal run, but with the reduction of speed and vertical run, his offspeed pitches are very effective.
Morton still has one of the nastiest curveballs in the game. Sporting a sweeping curve because of that three-quarter arm action, Morton has been able to fool hitters with his curveball with a 34.2% whiff rate and an expected batting average of .182.
A reason for this level of difficulty for hitters is his spin rate sitting at 3,085 RPM, over 500 reps above the league average. This increased spin rate allows him to get an average movement on his sweeping curve of over 18 inches from release.
3. Experience
Throughout Morton’s 17-year career, he is a two-time All-Star and two-time World Series Champion.
In 17 postseason starts, he has pitched 80 innings and has posted a 3.60 ERA.
Morton brings a level of experience in the postseason that is needed to push this Orioles rotation to the next level.
So, What’s Next?
Morton is a strong veteran presence to the Orioles’ rotation but can not be considered a replacement for the hole left by Corbin Burnes.
Keep in mind that Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are knocking on the door for a return mid-summer. If the season started tomorrow, we would predict the rotation to look as follows:
1. Zach Eflin
2. Grayson Rodriguez
3. Charlie Morton
4. Tomoyuki Sugano
5. Dean Kremer/Cade Povich
This move with Morton screams safety blanket upgrade in the middle of the rotation for the ability to send a package of prospects for a strong, top-of-the-rotation arm. The names at the top of the market currently are Dylan Cease, Luis Castillo and Pablo López.
There’s a chance we could see the Orioles leveraging their depth at starting pitching to put a trade package together with the San Diego Padres for Cease or ship a package of prospects headlined by an MLB-ready hitter to the Seattle Mariners for Castillo.
At this point, it feels like free agent right-hander Jack Flaherty doesn’t make much sense for the Orioles, seeing the amount of depth to use to upgrade to a true ace.
What are your thoughts on the Morton signing and what he brings to the table? Let us know in the comments below! Make sure to follow The Baltimore Battery on Facebook, Twitter (X) and TikTok, and use the hashtag #baltimorebattery when sharing our content!
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