Charlie Morton’s time with the Orioles couldn’t have begun much worse. He started his first five appearances and lost all of them. His best outing in that stretch was a five-inning start in which he recorded 10 strikeouts but allowed five runs. By the end of April, he’d lost his rotation spot. He carried a 9.45 earned run average with nearly as many walks (21) as strikeouts (26) through 26 2/3 innings.
Morton spent the next three weeks working out of the bullpen. He allowed eight runs (seven earned) over 16 1/3 innings across six appearances. It was better than his early-season production but wasn’t a full-fledged turnaround. Injuries reopened a rotation spot at the end of May.
The 41-year-old Morton has seized the new starting opportunity. He has allowed two or fewer runs in six of his past eight starts. Over that stretch, he carries a 2.76 ERA. Morton has fanned more than a quarter of opponents with a vastly improved 7.5% walk rate. His 12.4% swinging strike percentage during that time is a top 30 mark in MLB. Morton’s fastball has gained some life. The heater averaged 93.7 MPH in April but has climbed to 94.4 MPH since the beginning of June.
Morton’s April struggles still leave him with a 5.18 ERA on the season. Yet he’s coming up on two months of the mid-rotation form he showed throughout his time with the Braves. This version of Morton is the pitcher the Orioles expected when they signed him to a $15MM free agent contract.
It’s an important development with two weeks until the deadline. Morton has quietly reemerged as an intriguing trade chip for a Baltimore team that is nine games below .500. As recently as six weeks ago, he seemed closer to a DFA candidate than a trade asset. He’s now probably the most appealing of Baltimore’s three impending free agent starting pitchers.
Zach Eflin has struggled since his suffering a lat strain in mid-April. He’s on the injured list with a lower back strain, though it seems likely he’ll return to make a start or two before July 31. Tomoyuki Sugano has a 6.62 ERA in seven starts since the beginning of June. Opposing hitters have a .327/.380/.520 slash line in that time. Sugano has a 14% strikeout rate and has allowed 1.72 homers per nine innings on the season. The O’s are going to have a difficult time drumming up interest.
Morton is owed a little more than $6MM the rest of the way. That’ll drop to roughly $4.75MM from the deadline through season’s end. That’s a decent sum for two months, but it’s reasonable if an acquiring team feels he’s back to being a playoff-caliber starter. Baltimore is going to get plenty of calls on All-Star slugger Ryan O’Hearn in the next couple weeks. Morton is pulling alongside Cedric Mullins and relievers Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto in their next tier of rental trade candidates.
I could see him as a desperation move to the braves because Anthopoulous loves bringing old guys back
They don’t have $5 million.
They also don’t have much of a farm system.
I don’t see this happening.
I mean if you can get anything of value for him then by all means make a deal. Even if my O’s pull off some sort of miracle and end up in the playoff picture, you’re going nowhere with the state of the rotation right now. Kremer has pitched very well recently and Trevor Rogers has been absolutely dominant. But you are going to need way more quality depth than that for a postseason run.
I’m really confused by this. You are saying that Morton should be traded because he’s not good enough for the Orioles’ playoff roster?
I’m saying that if by some miracle we even sniff the playoffs, we’re not going anywhere with our rotation. So I’m of the opinion that we should be selling all of the immediately expendable pieces.
Trade him to Colorado
His ERA looks like he’s already pitching in Colorado.
If he’s cheap enough like the orioles covering most of his salary I can see the Yankees taking him on. They’ve got a lot of holes to fill and over the tax so I think Cashman is going to be looking for bargains.
Yes, I am sure the Orioles would love to help the Yanks out.
If they get an interesting arm who’s ready for the big leagues in 2026 yes they definitely would be interested in that I bet.
schlitter should net them merrill kelly at least, more than morton, but yanks dont have very many other pitchers made for the bigs now… could be hard to find a deal in the division
Charlie is a reliable arm with playoff experience. Good mentor for younger guys at this point. Teams could def do worse even with the “higher” salary. Dodgers would just “Defer” it.
The Dodgers would rewrite his contract mid-season. This is a new concept for trading. 4-D chess by Friedman.
When are they doing a Trade Candidate Paul Skenes?
This will be my last visit to MLBTR.
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Do better.