BALTIMORE — The Orioles have added a veteran workhorse arm to their rotation mix for the 2025 season.
On Friday, the club announced that it has signed right-hander Charlie Morton to a one-year contract. The deal is worth $15 million, a source told MLB.com.
Morton, 41, is a 17-year big league veteran who has previously pitched for the Braves (2008, ‘21-24), Pirates (‘09-15), Phillies (‘16), Astros (‘17 and ‘18) and Rays (‘19 and ‘20). He has a 4.01 ERA in 383 career games (382 starts).
Last season, Morton recorded a 4.19 ERA in 165 1/3 innings over 30 starts for Atlanta. He had a 3.87 ERA in 124 starts over his most recent four-year stint with the Braves, highlighted by his strong ‘21 campaign (a 3.34 ERA in 33 starts). He threw more than 163 innings in each of those seasons.
Morton is a two-time All-Star, earning the honor with the Astros in 2018, then with the Rays in ‘19. He won a World Series championship with Houston in ‘17 and Atlanta in '21.
That wasn’t the only October experience for Morton, though. He owns a 3.60 ERA in 80 postseason innings over 18 games (17 starts).
Morton still has one of the better curveballs in the game. He throws the pitch 42 percent of the time, far more than anything else in his arsenal, and it held hitters to a .183 expected average with a 34-percent whiff rate in 2024. Morton recorded 102 strikeouts with his curve this past season, more than double the amount with any other pitch. He also still has a serviceable four-seam fastball, which usually sits around 94 mph, per Statcast.
The Orioles have signed a pair of right-handed starters this offseason, previously inking Japanese righty Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year, $13 million deal. Morton and Sugano should both slot into a rotation that will feature righties Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez and Dean Kremer.
Among Baltimore’s other starting options are righties Albert Suárez, Chayce McDermott (O’s No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline) and Brandon Young (O’s No. 18 prospect) as well as lefties Cade Povich and Trevor Rogers.
It is not yet clear whether the Orioles are done adding starters to their rotation mix (which no longer includes 2024 rotation ace Corbin Burnes, who signed with the D-backs). They still don’t have a clear ace for the top of the staff, though Eflin or Rodriguez could become the de facto No. 1 in the upcoming season if no further additions are made.
Morton and Sugano will be joined by outfielder Tyler O’Neill and catcher Gary Sánchez as free-agent newcomers in Baltimore in 2025. The Orioles have now spent a total of $86 million this offseason.