After spending the best two seasons of his MLB career with the Houston Astros, pitcher Charlie Morton will spend the next two seasons in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform having signed a 2-year, $30 million contract with the club.
Morton has reinvented himself in a way not thought possible. Originally drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2002 and making his MLB debut with them in 2008, Morton spent the bulk of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates before briefly pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2016 before being shelved with a season ending hamstring injury.
Entering the 2017 season, Morton had a career record of 46-71 with a 4.54 ERA in 161 big league starts. In his two seasons with the Astros, Morton has gone 29-10 with a 3.36 ERA. In 2017, Morton went 14-7 with a 3.62 ERA winning Game 7 of both the ALCS and the World Series giving the Astros their first ever World Series title. Morton was even better in 2018 going 15-3 with a 3.13 ERA, a career high 201 strikeouts in only 167 innings pitched and his first ever All-Star Team selection.
In signing with the Rays, the 35-year old Morton becomes the number two starter in the rotation after reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and will help the team depend less on the opener strategy deployed by manager Kevin Cash during the 2018 season.
While most baseball prognosticators will focus on the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, it would be a big mistake to overlook the Rays in the 2019 AL East race. An experienced veteran like Morton could make all the difference in the world between a Wild Card berth and a divisional title.
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