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.
They could offload a reliever or any salary matching player in return
According to Cot’s, the Braves are $6,366,546 below the threshold. Not saying they would or should get Charlie, but they have the room.
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.
Your rotation will have to improve immensely for that to happen. They should try and deal for some cost control now
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
Well they did align on the Zack Britton trade a while back
Yankees interested in a 41 year old starter and 40 year old reliever in Robertson boy some things never change. Maybe they’ll be in the market for 39 year old 1B Santana. Matter of fact maybe they can bring Jeter out of retirement. What’s with this team and hiring geriatric nursing home facility patients?
@Wrian
BOTH old guys would be an improvement for the Yanks Now that’s the sad part.
Dumpster diving Trashman would jump at a deal for a Single A prospect.
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.
Uh, what?
When are they doing a Trade Candidate Paul Skenes?
July 2028
Got to do that salary dump. Should be sometime this week.
Yes this week in the year 2028. At this point he will have 1 more year of team control
This will be my last visit to MLBTR.
The ads are simply intolerable.
Do better.
You could have just left without announcing it
My favorite is when you type out a really long comment then switch tabs to verify spelling, stats, etc and when you go back, its an ad. After the ad you are on a comment less post and have to navigate back to find your started comment no longer exist. Frustrating
Try a second browser.
Or copy your comment. If it goes away, you can paste it back in again.
That’s what I do now. Just took awhile to remember each time
Subscribers don’t have that problem, I hear.
Duh.
Go talk to Abe Lincoln about your demands for free labor.
No, a company, any company, wants to know why they are losing customers. And the writer is correct – the site has become a mountain of ads and firewalls.
$2.99 per month or $29.89 per year would solve that.
It’s amazing to me how people can be so “outraged” over something they get for free.
For those who don’t subscribe, the site derives income from selling ads. Any business site has to keep those customers coming back, too. Annoy them with too many ads, and they will spend less time looking at your content.
FWIW, I haven’t subscribed not because I think it costs too much, but because I feel like I already spend enough time here (and quite a few of the paywalled articles don’t interest me that much).
Quite right. And there are a simple ways to furnish the paid content only to subscribers and avoid the needless clutter (partial articles) for non subscribers. The ads, most people ignore but the partial articles just clutter things up. ..
Well, if my neighbor buys a green John-Deere and drives by me with a stupid smirk on his face…..
…..we’ll both be in trouble, although I do live in a “mutual combat” state …..
Mullins will probably turn down a QO. Likewise eflin. Elias loves comp picks. He used 30-40 picks to get Westburg, Gunnar, avg guy Norby, 900 AAA ops Beavers, 2 whiffs. That’s 2x or 3x the value.
He won’t trade anyone who can get a comp pick for him.
Mullins would (should) jump at a QO.
No way the Os offer Mullins a comp pick. I’m a big Mullins fan but his numbers went cold a month into the season. He gets hot occasionally but as much as I’d like to see Mullins stick with the Os he’s not getting a QO unless he goes on an epic offensive tear to end the season.
Why would anyone want him? He is kaput.
He been pretty good over the past month. He might be useful as a long man/spot starter for a few teams. Especially if you don’t have to give up anything for taking on the salary.
He’s been very good for a couple months. The only reason the Os are keeping things kind of interesting is because Morton and Rogers have pitched very well lately.
I don’t think Mullins will get a QO, and if he does I’d be pretty surprised to see him decline it unless he has a hot stretch in him.
Going out and getting Morton at the deadline is similar to boarding a flight in India.. it’s just going to end disastrously.. which is why a lesser fringer type contender will more likely be his suitor if traded
He is a good fit for the Padres.
Was this supposed to be part of a series? This 7 paragraph article is weird, and apparently an orphan. Why even bother writing a trade candidate series if you’re only doing one?