Phillies righty Charlie Morton will require season-ending surgery on a torn left hamstring, the club announced. He is expected to require a six to eight month recovery time after undergoing the procedure.
Indications were that an MRI had revealed more extensive damage than was initially hoped, and today’s news certainly reflects that. It’s obviously a disappointing turn of events for the veteran starter, who was acquired over the winter for righty David Whitehead.
The Phils had added Morton in hopes that he’d help to stabilize a young rotation while getting his career back on a positive trajectory. He seemed on track to do just that, contributing a 4.15 ERA through 17 1/3 innings in four starts with promising peripherals. Morton had a 19:8 K:BB ratio with an outstanding 62.8% groundball rate in the early going.
Philadelphia owes Morton $8MM for the 2016 campaign. He also has a mutual option at $9.5MM for 2017 that comes with a $1MM buyout. (That was originally a club option under the extension he signed with the Pirates, but converted with the trade.) While mutual options are rarely exercised by both sides, the promising start and subsequent injury could theoretically lead to a match if both sides see the value in a one-year arrangement.
With Morton down, the Phillies will need to find alternatives to fill out the staff. Young hurlers Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, and Vince Velasquez have all shown real promise, while Jeremy Hellickson was added for much the same reason as was Morton. But the fifth starter’s role will now likely go to another internal option. Ryan Lawrence of the Philly Voice noted yesterday that 26-year-old southpaw Adam Morgan was scratched from his upcoming Triple-A start, likely in anticipation of a call-up, so it seems he’ll get the first crack.
Bummer for Charlie. When he was with the Pirates, he always seamed like one of those good guys that caused no trouble and you liked to root for. Hope you can come back healthy and get the career going again next season whether it is with the Phils or elsewhere.
I think you mean Jerad not Jared Eickhoff.
Indeed. Fixed.
More fodder for proponents of the DH in the NL. That’s 3 pitchers in 3 seasons that have incurred significant injuries while batting in Miller Park. In 2014, Joe Kelly, then with the Cardinals, pulled a hamstring running out a bunt and missed 2 months. Last year it was Adam Wainwright tearing his Achilles. and not Morton injuring himself running to first base.
Sounds to me like that’s more fodder for closing Miller Park, since there’s not that much evidence of injury in any other stadium.
The same action involved in running out a bunt is involved in running from the mound to cover first base, but we don’t hear anyone clamoring for a designated fielder for the pitcher.
Absolutely agreed NotCanon. Running out a bunt, or even running the bases full stop, is a mechanically repeatable skill. A couple of injuries is not sufficient reason to change the game to compensate.
The DH is already used to negate the effects of old age and weight issues, let’s not take it too far.
Professional athletes should be expected to be able to run without getting hurt. An injury here or there shouldn’t be any grounds for a DH.
Okay so you have 3 injuries. How many pitchers WEREN’T injured while batting in those same three seasons? People like to pick and choose statistics to fit whatever argument they make, but they tend to forget the stats that make their argument look ridiculous.
Actually, more fodder for the DH in the NL is that watching pitchers bat is really boring and the “strategy” of the double-switch is not strategy but necessity.
Cheer up, Charlie.
Morton a great acquisition for young phils staff. Also if he pitched well goal was to trade at deadline and add more assets. Morgan deserves to be called up.