New Rays right-hander Charlie Morton has been open in the past about his uncertainty surrounding how long he aims to continue playing, and he told MLB Network’s Jon Morosi that he is “fully expecting” to retire once his current contract with the Rays expires (Twitter link).
The 35-year-old signed a two-year, $30MM contract with Tampa Bay this offseason, allowing him to pitch closer to his Florida home. Morton’s contract also contains a vesting option for the 2021 season, which leaves open the possibility that he’ll pitch through his age-37 season, though that’s far from a certainty at this point.
Signed by the Astros to a two-year contract prior to the 2017 season, Morton broke out as an unexpected star in Houston, not only giving the ’Stros 313 2/3 innings of 3.36 ERA ball but also providing some memorable postseason moments. The righty fired five shoutout innings against the Yankees in the decisive Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS, pitched six innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers in Game 4 of the 2017 World Series and closed out that same World Series in Game 7 with four innings of relief.
He’ll now join an upstart Rays club that carries similar postseason aspirations after surprising many onlookers with a 90-win season in 2018. Tampa Bay reportedly plans to only utilize three traditional starters — 2018 Cy Young winner Blake Snell, Morton and young Tyler Glasnow — with the other two would-be rotation spots being occupied by “openers.” Ryne Stanek, Emilio Pagan, Colin Poche, Wilmer Font and Hunter Wood are all reportedly in the mix for that role (Stanek was the team’s most frequent option in 2018), while lefties Ryan Yarbrough and Jalen Beeks and right-hander Yonny Chirinos are currently the lead followup options.
I miss Morton in Pittsburgh uniform. His name became value toward the last 2 years while in Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t give Houston that much credit for his career. He did well in Pittsburgh and carried over to Houston.
He won a WS in Houston…
And it’s not a team game, so that means something.
So his name was more valuable before that world series? That’s your interpretation?
He was ran out of town in Pittsburgh if I remember correctly. He was just the 5th starter that blew a lot of games in the 6th inning. His game went to a whole new level in Houston.
I was pissed when the Braves traded him and Gorkys Hernandez for Nate McClouth.
I’m sorry but this just isn’t true. Outside of a couple okay years he didn’t find his step until leaving PIT. Whatever he did to find his velocity in Philadelphia is where the credit should start. Then it really culminates with HOU refining his arsenal and knowing how to pair pitches.
Morton with ATL/PIT: 875.2 IP, 15.8 K%, 4.54 ERA/4.12 FIP, 7.4 WAR
With PHI/HOU: 331 IP, 27.7 K%, 3.40 ERA/3.51 FIP, 6.7 WAR
He did well in Pittsburgh? He had some ok seasons with the Bucs, but had some not so good seasons with them too. I wouldn’t call a 4,39 ERA and 4.03 FIP as doing well. The last 2 seasons, the first 2 full seasons since leaving Pitt., he’s done much much better. Truthfully, I think the Stros realized that he’s not “Ground chuck” but Strikeout Chuck, tweaked some of his mechanics, and helped him improve his performance.
I would absolutely call being a league-average pitcher for the course of six seasons as doing well. Put it this way – Charlie accumulated 641 2/3 innings between 2011 and 2016. Is that great? Not really.
However, 639 pitchers threw 100 or more innings in that time frame. Of those 639, just 115 accumulated more than 600 innings of work.
3.96 ERA , 3.85 FIP, 3.89 xFIP 2011-2015 in 600+ innings. I’d say those five seasons were pretty good when all was said and done. Not to mention the injuries sustained in those years.
This was after he changed his arm slot, so credit is due to the coaches in Pittsburgh as well.
And 100s of those guys are relievers so your point is?
more like he was Meh in Pittsburgh, injured in Philadelphia, great in Houston
Id actually give more credit to his high school team since he was really good there – just carried over to Houston.
He was lights out in peewee league too.
He had two average years in Pittsburgh. His last year there was bad though.
Ray Searage is overrated as a pitching coach. Too many “homers” doing the local broadcasts and sportswriters have piled up the praise for him over the years but he has a lot more misses than accredited reclamation projects.
Pgh’s dogmatic pitching philosophy hurt both Morton & Cole… and is probably hurting their current staff, too.
It’s no coincidence that both Cole & Morton left Pgh & then immediately had career years elsewhere.
Amazing how everyone ignores this stuff…. G. Cole was firmly in the “not-an-ace” category in Pgh, and Morton was incredibly frustrating while in Pgh. Both go to HOU…. boom, best seasons ever for both. Not sure why folks are so eager to carry water for Pgh’s FO.
Sick of hearing about this “opener” garbage. Can’t wait for it to explode in Tampa’s face lol
It worked pretty well for them last year.
A class act who was plagued by injuries early in his career. Happy he has finally been able to stay healthy, has found success the past couple of years, and has a World Series ring.
You might want to get used to it because more than few teams are heading that way this season. I know change is hard, but your comment is what people used to say about relievers or pinch-hitters or the DH or, heck, the slider or the curveball or the stolen base or anything else that changed the arc of the game.
I don’t understand why you’re so against the opener. Are you against closers? I mean, it’s a pretty similar role: come in, pitch one or two innings, and then you’re done for the night.
It ain’t goin nowhere. The numbers say it was very successful.
The opener/follower pitching is a big success and here to stay. That is because hitters,line-ups and managers can’t adjust to the Righty-Lefty pitching replacements!
If it was so successful why did they sign Morton. shouldn’t they have went after good RP instead of SP.
Lol that makes no sense
“If it was so successful why did they sign Morton. shouldn’t they have went after good RP instead of SP.”
Because it was only used for two or so rotation spots. Having a good pitcher that gives you 6 or 7 innings 3 out of every 5 days still soaks up a ton of those innings. Mixing some regular starters in seems to make that strategy a strength.
Then why not have 5 starters who can do that? If 3 pitchers like that are good, wouldn’t 5 be better?
Seems TB is taking these other franchises and it’s fans to baseball school. The answers you seek young Patawan, is… The Rays want to keep their opponents unbalanced! if they have Opener’s then bulk pitchers every game, the other team will compensate easier. and settle in to the different pitches.Having traditional Starters every other night give the other team and it’s batter that much more to concern them selves with. Don’t worry, next year the team you root for will copy.
1) fielding 5 good starters is really expensive.
2) finding 9 or so good RPs that could open or follow is relatively cheap.
3) they tried the strategy last year & won 90 games.
anything else?
7 teams didn’t use an opener and won more game than the Ray’s. It works if you have a good bullpen and bad starters. I just wondered why they spent big on a starter when they could have signed a couple of good RP instead. They must value SP if they signed Morton for 2/30.
Opener worked for them due to 3 pitchers needing Tommy John & having enough young relief pitchers on hand that they got creative.
It also allowed younger pitchers like Yarborough & Chirinos to get their feet wet by only pitching 2 or 3 innings. Plus ’17 starter Faria got hurt & good never get on track. The Rays also did not have a effective Faria & Font who they acquired went on the DL after 30 days & stayed there. This year the Rays have all those pitchers healthy.
Well hopefully it doesn’t explode into a 100 win season and push the yankees for a wc
Morton became dominant when he left Pgh and quit trying to be a sinkerball pitcher. Went to being a power arm throwing up in the zone which made his breaking ball down low so much more dominant. Never would’ve had this success had he stayed in Pgh. Their pitch to contact and groundball philosophy wouldn’t have allowed it. Just like when Cole left; became the power pitcher everyone thought he could be and should be with his stuff.
Right on the money, Remember92
Bingo. Rememberg92 wins the prize.
Every team in the league should be lining-up to sign Pgh’s underperforming pitchers… get them away from that myopic ground-ball strategy & suddenly non-ace ex-pirate pitchers are Cy Young candidates.
The “opener” isn’t going to “blow up” for the simple reason it just isn’t that big of a deal. It’s still 27 outs. And for whatever reasons, some of their pitchers married the idea; Stanek, who as a closer had been ugly, was an effective opener; Yarborough, a risky starter, turned into a solid “bulk” guy. If they buy into it, why not use it?
It’s a basically innocuous practice. And no, VERY few folks go to a game just to see a certain pitcher. If you’re in Boston, for all you know Luis Tiant may be pitching on the night you can get a ticket. But you go anyway. (Hope he pitches against BIG SEXY!). The “going to see a certain pitcher” went the way of the hula hoop when starters all stopped at 100 pitches.
Whether it works or doesn’t this year will depend on the quality of the staff, and, with a few exceptions, nothing else.
Let’s not forget they do this because they just don’t have the starters to have a consistent 5 man rotation… it’s 27 outs, I get it, stanek did well but they also went 3-4 in those games. It’s revolutionary but let’s not act like it’s a strategy as effective as “the shift” it just simply gets them by because they don’t have confidence of anyone more than 3 guys to go more than 2 times through a lineup
It’s also exploiting a market inefficiency; starters are expensive, and if they get hurt you have to scramble to fill 180 innings. Using the opener is not just cheaper, and not just more effective on-field (pitcher effectiveness always drops each time through the batting order), but is easier to replace than trying to fix a rotation if, like, four starters get hurt at once, as happened to the Angels and Rangers last season.
They rays have about 15 starters they could run out there. They have starters, they do this because it’s harder to plan and play against. Really annoyed with people just listening to MLB Network on how this is why they do it when it’s not because no other fans or analyst really know what the Rays are doing unless you’re an in depth Rays fan
Well. glad I’m not alone thinking through this. It is a logistical nightmare for a team to prepare for the Opener/follower (Bulk)setup! . Most daily lineups cards are written up to take advantage of a Righty-Lefty pitcher to hitter match-up…You can’t prepare properly with quick change over of the Opener ( starter).
I wouldn’t dismiss EVERYBODY on the network. I find Ron Darling’s comments to be pretty intelligent (must be the Yale thing); Dan O’Dowd always has an interesting perspective; and Billy Ripken defies his appearance and demeanor by showing he really thinks about these things.
But I’d agree that most of the guys just talk just to talk.
“…it’s harder to plan and play against….”
Yep, especially in the AL where the DH shortens your bench/options + AL managers are simply not very nimble/clever regarding switches (the DH rule removed 95% of switch/match-up strategy from AL decades ago).
TBR are waaaaaay ahead of the curve.
I definitely go to games in order to see certain pitchers Bob, particularly to see certain pitchers go up against other impressive pitchers…
you must not have pitched.
Yes, but which pitchers? On the Rays, you might go to see Snell. Perhaps Morton or Glasnow. But are you going to see Faria? Or Beeks? Or Font. The argument that people go to see the starter is meaningless, because the pitchers who are draws will still be starters. But it is rare that the 5th starter is exciting fans.
And it seems to me that with time, there will be even more interest to see the tandem of opener and headliner (bulk guy), perhaps more than to see a lesser starter. There is excitement in the unusual or out of the ordinary.
I agree generally with your premise but I think there are still plenty of people who go to see a specific pitcher. In fact Aces are such a rarity now, going to see a specific pitcher is probably a bigger deal than it used to be.
I’d like to find some data but I guarantee attendance/viewership is higher on Sale Day or for Scherzer’s starts, or even Snell’s. In Boston specifically, there is far more buzz about the team on days Sale is pitching than any other day of the week.
I’ll agree no one is going to a game specifically to see a team’s 4 or 5 starter, but that was never a thing to begin with unless some hyped up prospect was throwing.
I’d agree that, given the choice of seeing Snell instead of Faria, you’d probably pick Snell. But I think we all agree that a myriad of other factors (availability, finances, weather) usually dictate whether or not you decide to mosey out to the ball park.
Snell couldn’t have THAT much of a draw. With an innovative, young and pretty exciting team last year, they actually LOST 100K in attendance over the year before, when they were as exciting as watching grass grow (Logan Morrison).
Yes, but there are only a handful of aces in any given season. I could name maybe 15 pitchers in MLB in 2018 I’d consider an “ace,” As far as the Rays, they are in an untenable situation with their stadium, lack of a TV deal, and location. They need to find a way to win using unorthodox methods.
They also had a 40-man full of AAA-AAAA-MLB guys. Wood, Schultz, Faria, Kittredge, etc., etc., etc. All were really past the ‘prospect” stage; most on the wrong side of 25. So it was kind of “let’s see what we’ve got before these guys leave in minor league free agency”. No at all a dumb thing to do, and THAT’S the paradigm I think you’ll see other teams use.
It MAY have only one more year anyway. It’s a system that pretty much needs a 10 day DL, and that goes back to a 15 day DL next year. The Dodgers and Rays used the 10 day very innovatively, but…….the shuffling that the the 10DL allowed disappears.
The rays actually didn’t exploit the 10 day DL rule last season..
From Ken Rosenthal..
Hey, leave the Rays alone!
A number of media reports indicated the Rays were a target of baseball’s recent proposals to reinstate the 15-day disabled list and increase the amount of time an optioned player must spend in the minors, also from 10 to 15 days. But the facts show the Rays’ introduction of “the opener” last season did not result in them manipulating either rule.
I flipped Morton for Marcell Ozuna in my dynasty league last summer….Sell high, buy low…
Yeah,I never thought he done much till he got to Hou.Damn,he was flat out filthy against us in 17 WS!Thanks for the memories Charles…….
Only problem with “opener” is starters can’t predict when they are coming in… I like the idea but I just don’t know…
There should be an opener in every tackle box.
“…starters can’t predict when they are coming in…”
non-issue. 99% of pitchers will develop a routine to accommodate their role.
Charlie Morton is to Doug Fister as Kleenex is to toilet paper.
?
Both practically same. Both do good job of back end (rotation) work, no frazzle. However, Charlie Morton, like Kleenex, is more household name. Fister, did good job, then got flushed by all organization, and treated like generic brand, like toilet paper.
In the spirit of Jeffrey Lebowski – “That’s like your opinion Man” – now why everybody else has to work overtime to explain why you are wrong is just an unfortunate by product of our often displayed online world.
Morton is a professional. Has only good things to say about Pittsburgh and Houston.
Enough said.
I hope he pitches well enough to where he feels like pitching another year with the option he has.