Orioles, pitcher Charlie Morton agree to one-year, $15 million deal

Matt Weyrich, Baltimore Sun on Jan 3, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — Three days after the Orioles lost ace Corbin Burnes to the Arizona Diamondbacks in free agency, they replaced him with another veteran starter.

Baltimore signed right-hander Charlie Morton to a one-year deal for the 2025 season Friday, the club announced. He will make $15 million, according to a source familiar with the deal, and is expected to bring stability to their pitching staff as a durable, middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Morton, 41, was the fourth-oldest pitcher to appear in the majors last season, posting a 4.19 ERA with 167 strikeouts in 165 1/3 innings for the Atlanta Braves. The two-time All-Star has made at least 30 starts in six of the past seven seasons, with the lone exception being the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.

Over his 17-year career, Morton has won two World Series titles — with the Houston Astros in 2017 and Braves in 2022 — and recorded a 3.60 ERA in 18 playoff appearances. Atlanta picked him in the third round of the 2002 MLB draft and he bounced around with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Astros and Tampa Bay Rays before returning to the Braves in 2021.

Morton will slot into a Baltimore rotation that projects to include Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Dean Kremer and fellow free-agent signing Tomoyuki Sugano with Trevor Rogers, Cade Povich and Albert Suárez among their depth options. Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells are expected to return from Tommy John elbow surgery around midseason as well.

With the Orioles, Morton will reunite with pitching coach Drew French, who was the bullpen coach on Atlanta’s championship-winning staff. Despite his age, Morton has continued to find success with a curveball-heavy approach and fastball that averages 94.1 mph. Morton throws a five-pitch mix and his 46.3% groundball rate ranked 13th among qualified starters last year.

Between Morton and Sugano, the Orioles have invested $28 million on one-year deals to bolster their rotation this offseason. Elfin will also make a team-leading $18 million salary in 2025 after being acquired at the trade deadline last year. The willingness to take on eight-figure deals represent a departure from the way executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias operated over his first five and a half years with the club, a change he credited to first-year owner David Rubenstein.

“We are looking at the whole menu, the whole spectrum,” Elias said of the free-agent pitching market in a video news conference Nov. 15.

“I credit the ownership change toward putting us in position to do that. As I’ve said, that doesn’t mean that we are going to spend money indiscriminately this offseason come hell or high water. … But I think if you’re running a team optimally, which is a word I’ve been focused on, you certainly want to keep the whole menu of player acquisition open.”

While the increased spending can’t be ignored, the Orioles have also fallen short of signing top-end free agents despite multiple reports linking them to several stars. Burnes joined the Diamondbacks on a six-year, $210 million deal. Max Fried signed with the New York Yankees on an eight-year pact and Blake Snell inked a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The top pitcher on the trade market, Garrett Crochet, also landed with the Boston Red Sox.

Meanwhile, the Orioles have made shrewd yet quiet moves to address their roster needs. In addition to Morton and Sugano, they also signed outfielder Tyler O’Neill to a three-year, $49.5 million deal and backup catcher Gary Sánchez for one-year and $8.5 million. The O’Neill contract was the first multi-year free agent contract Baltimore had ever signed under Elias.

The winter is not yet over — the Orioles didn’t acquire Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers until Feb. 1 last offseason — but the pitching market has thinned out in recent weeks. The Orioles also now have five established starters penciled into their rotation and another move would, barring a trade, create a logjam on the 26-man roster.

Morton fills an important hole on the Orioles’ roster. It’s just not the hole that was created when Burnes walked in free agency.

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Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article.