The 2024-25 offseason has seen football rookies enjoy a hot market since the start of winter, and nearly every starter has signed a contract past expectations this winter. That led to starts all winter long, and as the 2025 calendar year begins only four pitchers MLBTR predicted to receive multi-year deals this winter remain on the market: Jack Flaherty, Nick Pivetta, Jose Quintanaagain Andrew Heaney. With many clubs still hoping to add starters this winter, that means several teams will have to turn to one-year deals to add to their rotation.
The list of potential players in that market space is extensive, with veterans who are solid but don’t look like Kyle Gibson and Martin Pérez and the players who hope to return to the ground or are injured for such seasons Michael Lorenzen again Spencer Turnbull. One unique group of pitchers available on one-year deals are a handful of aging veterans who have long been among the best players in baseball but who either can’t score or aren’t interested in making multi-year commitments at this point. activities. Former Cy Young Award winners Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzeragain Justin Verlander they all fall into this category, but the best in the group in 2024 was actually 41 years old. Charlie Morton.
Unlike the three mentioned above, Morton is not a future Hall of Famer. He didn’t make his major league debut until he was 24 years old and didn’t fully break out as a starter until his age-33 season, which came with the Astros back in 2017. Since then, however, Morton. he was among the best hitters in the sport. He grew into one of the sport’s more durable starters with over 1,200 career innings over the past 8 seasons, good for eighth in the majors. Among starters with at least 1,000 innings in that span, Morton’s 3.64 ERA and nearly identical 3.63 FIP ranked ninth, while his 27.4% strikeout rate ranked sixth behind only Scherzer, Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Yu Darvishagain Blake Snell.
That solid, reliable production would make Morton an attractive free agent for several clubs in recent years, but his last foray into free agency came in the 2020-21 offseason, when he limited his market to Atlanta and Tampa Bay. an effort to stay close to his family. Since then, he has signed consecutive short-term extensions with the Braves to remain in Atlanta. In four years as a member of the Braves, Morton pitched to a 3.87 ERA (110 ERA+) with a 3.92 FIP in 686 1/3 innings of work, establishing himself as a solid middle rotation arm.
There was some variation in Morton’s career with Atlanta, as he posted top-of-the-rotation results in 2021 and ’23 but was close to league average in 2022 and ’24. Even in those down years, however, Morton’s durability made him a quality rotation option unlike Gibson. With the floor of a solid veteran running back and the ceiling of a playoff-caliber starter, Morton stands out among the remaining starters available as something like the best of both worlds; he has been as strong over the years as a veteran like Gibson or Patrick Corbin, but with recent success that easily erases those reliable arms.
While even Morton’s best years pale in comparison to how the aforementioned trio of aging aces looked in their prime, Morton’s numbers after the last two years are actually very similar to Scherzer’s on average: Scherzer posted a 3.81 ERA (109 ERA+) with a 4.29 FIP since the start of the 2023 season, while Morton posted a 3.92 ERA (108 ERA+) with a 4.17 FIP during the same span. Scherzer’s 26.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate are better than Morton’s 24.7% rate and 10.4% walk rate, but Morton benefits from a much higher groundball rate and has almost twice the volume of -Scherzer in the last two years.
While betting on a pitcher who has already celebrated his 41st birthday will always come with risk, Morton’s impressive durability and consistent record of success make him one of the most intriguing combinations of prospect and stability currently available in free agency. That said, it doesn’t appear that the veteran has fully decided whether or not he will return to the mound in 2025. Morton has always thought about hanging up his gloves to join his family in their home in Florida, Initial reports indicated that his intention is to enter in 2025, Morton’s plans seem to be up in the air as he may end up somewhere other than Atlanta next season.
It is reported that Morton’s preference is to play for the team that will host Spring Training in Florida so that he can stay close to home most of the time. Besides the Braves and Rays, the Orioles, Red Sox, Tigers, Astros, Blue Jays, Marlins, Twins, Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Pirates, Cardinals, and Nationals all play in the Grapefruit League in the spring. Most of these teams are either facing significant payroll issues or will not be able to add rotation help this winter, but the Orioles, Astros, Tigers, and Mets could be the most likely targets for the right-hander once he leaves Atlanta.
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