SARASOTA, Fla. — Charlie Morton, 41 years young, can’t retire from his childhood dream just yet.
The Braves’ offseason didn’t have many surprises, but Morton’s status became a key one. Many believed Morton would retire following the 2024 campaign. That certainly was the vibe in the Braves clubhouse after they were eliminated in San Diego in October. But Morton said then he hadn’t decided on his future. True to his words, he hadn’t.
After he and his family considered their options, he decided to continue his illustrious late-career blossoming — in Baltimore. Morton is starting anew.
“I have to separate what other people’s expectations are based off information they have that doesn’t include my own thoughts and feelings,” Morton told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of his decision to continue playing. “It’s really not up to anybody else to decide that for me. I wouldn’t ever want to feel pressured to retire because other people expected me to retire.”
Morton found the ideal landing spot. The Orioles train in Sarasota, Florida, near his home in Bradenton. Morton was never going to sign with a club that trains in Arizona or Florida’s east coast. Also, much of his wife Cindy’s family lives in the Northeast, so signing with Baltimore gets the Mortons closer to them. He also knew several people with the team, including pitching coach Drew French (formerly with the Braves).
If he was changing teams, Morton likely wouldn’t sign with an irrelevant club. He joined a franchise that’s similar to the Braves at the point of his arrival before 2021. The Orioles are loaded with young talent like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman. They’ve experienced pennant races and postseason failures. Their mission now is a World Series title.
The Braves share those ambitions. So it’s fair to wonder why Morton isn’t still in their uniform, particularly given the certainty he could’ve provided the rotation. He doesn’t have an answer for you. He’s made peace with moving on. Morton didn’t display any bitterness, instead expressing constant gratitude during a one-on-one conversation with The AJC at Orioles camp.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
But he lacks an explanation for why the Braves didn’t make a stronger effort to retain him.
“I think this was certainly the most difficult offseason in terms of deciding whether to continue playing,” Morton said. “I just waited for my agents to let me know what was going on, who was interested, what offers were out there if any. It’s a tough thing. Your human nature is like — you wonder what’s going on behind the scenes and what people really think of you or what’s really going on in the situation, right? Because you just truly don’t know … I wasn’t privy to those conversations with my agents. My agents have always been forthright and shoot me straight.
“But to my understanding, I just wasn’t the best fit for the situation for (the Braves). So I don’t know, other than that, any particulars. That could be a myriad of reasons. That could be financial — they could be handcuffed financially — or they just didn’t want to try to compete in the market. Maybe it’s like, ‘Hey, he’s 41 years old.’ I don’t know.”
Morton added he didn’t know if the Braves made an offer. But he spoke highly of president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, and he stressed understanding that teams have a variety of factors to consider in player acquisition, from financial constraints to clearing the pathway for younger talent.
“My agents have a really good relationship with Alex, and I consider Alex a friend,” Morton said. “I trust there was nothing malicious intended. I trust that he’s doing the best he can for the organization. And I’m completely fine with that. He owes me nothing. He owes me no favors. As far as I know, he’s always been honest with me, shot me straight. That’s all you can ask of somebody in that position because they don’t have to tell you everything, right? It’s a big ask to expect that a player deserves to know much of anything. So that’s really valuable. That’s how I view Alex, a friend, and I think he’s done a great job of it.”
Morton was one of Anthopoulos’ most impactful acquisitions. They won the 2021 World Series, his first season returning to the franchise for which he was a prospect in the 2000s, and that’s despite him suffering a broken leg in Game 1 of the Fall Classic. Overall, Morton had a 3.87 ERA in 124 starts for the Braves. In 2024, Morton had a 4.19 ERA over 165⅓ innings (30 starts). Also important, he covered at least 163 innings in each of his four seasons since rejoining the Braves (all of which produced postseason berths).
The team is turning to other rotation options now, and perhaps an unseasoned pitcher such as AJ Smith-Shawver establishes himself, but there’s no doubt the club will miss Morton’s steadiness and presence. He was an adored teammate, by all accounts, and aided the young nucleus’ emergence.
“Charlie is one of the more amazing people that I’ve been around in baseball,” Yankees starter Max Fried, formerly a Brave, told The AJC. “He’s always extremely nice and generous with his time and who he is as a person. An extreme professional. He allowed you to see someone who was extremely well respected in this sport, was kind and gracious to his teammates and those around him, but also was a fierce competitor on the mound and dealt with a lot of stuff, whether it was physically, emotionally, on-field, off-field; but never allowed it to affect how he was on a day-to-day basis and being able to take the ball and all of those things.
“I think as a young player coming up trying to find his way in this game, he’s a really good person to look to and seeing how they go about things, and someone who is very well respected.”
Morton’s and Fried’s exits were two of several for the Braves this past offseason. Beloved backstop Travis d’Arnaud is with the Angels, along with slugger Jorge Soler and catching coach Sal Fasano. Key southpaw A.J. Minter is with the rival Mets.
So the Braves look a bit different this year, lacking some mainstays of recent seasons. In fact, only several remain from the 2021 team: second baseman Ozzie Albies, third baseman Austin Riley, shortstop Orlando Arcia, starter Ian Anderson and left-handed pitcher Dylan Lee (along with sluggers Ronald Acuña Jr. and Marcell Ozuna, who were injured). Even the greatest teams don’t stay together in professional sports. It’s not surprising to see so much roster turnover across four seasons, but it’s a testament to the Braves that they’ve remained a postseason participant through the alterations.
Despite minimal offseason additions — outfielder Jurickson Profar the most notable — and several noteworthy exits, the Braves are betting favorites in perhaps MLB’s best division. FanGraphs projects the Braves at 93 wins and a 92.5% chance at making the postseason, both comfortably the highest numbers in the National League East.
“I think it’s a reflection of their confidence in their ability to value talent and develop,” Morton said. “I don’t think it’s a reflection of them actively trying to get rid of people. But I don’t know what those conversations looked like. I’m sure they would’ve loved to keep (d’Arnaud). I’m sure they would’ve loved to keep Max, Mint, Freddie (Freeman), Dansby (Swanson). But those are conversations that are built around things that aren’t just wants. Those are conversations based off factors that we don’t even understand. All I can do is take people that I trust at face value. I’m not sure that it’s the right thing to keep a team together just based off the fact that you want to keep them together. Should you? That’s the difficult thing for Alex. For all we know, he tried to keep everyone together and couldn’t.
“It’s just the way life goes right? You try to appreciate as much as you can, hold on to what you value and fight for it as much as you can. And then you learn to let go, and try to still become a better person in different circumstances, in a different environment. That’s the best you can do. That’s what makes watching careers like an Adam Wainwright or Clayton Kershaw, or up to this point, like watching Mike Trout; guys that got to wear the uniform for the same team for so long and walk away wearing the same uniform. … It’s such a rarity now that you just can’t expect that. It would’ve been great to watch Freddie retire a Brave, but he got to sign a nice deal, go out to where he’s from, play for a team he grew up watching, and then win a World Series with that team in what’s hopefully a Hall of Fame career.”
While Morton isn’t a Hall of Famer, Braves fans will remember him fondly. They’ll remember how he persisted, going from the youngster shipped out in the Nate McLouth trade of 2009 to becoming a reliable, sometimes high-level, starter who returned to the Braves and helped deliver a title.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Understand the gravity of being a Brave — and returning to the franchise that nurtured him two decades earlier — isn’t lost on Morton. He reiterated time and time again how much he loves the organization and how grateful he’s been to have so much of his career tied to the franchise.
“I was an Atlanta Brave for 11 years of my career (including minor leagues),” Morton said. “I came up with the Atlanta Braves. I came up with Bobby Cox as manager. Eddie Watt was my first professional pitching coach. I learned how to be a pro as an Atlanta Brave. I grew up a young adult with the Braves. My first taste of the big leagues, I faced Vladdie Guerrero in Anaheim with Brian McCann catching. I watched some of Tom Glavine’s last outings. I got to be around John Smoltz when he was still in that clubhouse; guys I idolized as a kid. I got a chance to wear that uniform and wear it proudly. Then I got to throw what are likely going to be some of the last seasons of my career in that uniform for that team. Got to be on a World Series championship-winning team with this really special group of guys.
“So that’s tough to be in the room with those guys and walk away from that. I mean, I guess I didn’t ‘walk away’ because, like I said, I don’t know. You’re going into an offseason. You’re trying to make the decision if you’re even going to play, and then your agents call and it’s like, ‘Hey, you have these small windows to make these decisions,’ right? If I want to keep playing, if I’m starting to think, ‘Man, I want to keep playing.’ And your agents calling you, and they’re saying, Hey, you have a window of time to make this decision. They’re going to wait, and you have a window of time to make that decision. It’s like, if you truly decide that you might want to keep playing, you’re forced to make that decision.
“But going to a new team, a new city, having to settle into a new place — those are all things that can be challenging, especially if you’re not with the right organization. But having talked to (O’s manager Brandon Hyde), having talked to (president of baseball operations) Mike (Elias), and having known and talked to Frenchie about what was going on here, and talking to my wife, my kids, and just trying to understand the bigger picture — the bigger picture about myself and what was in my heart, trying to navigate through all that — I feel like I was fortunate enough to land in a really good spot for me and for my family, all things considered.”
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