Major League Baseball

How Atlanta Braves pitcher Charlie Morton went from journeyman to postseason ace

Published Oct. 19, 2021 8:14 a.m. ET

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

When I think back to how I felt in the immediate moments after the Houston Astros won the 2017 World Series, it was all about Charlie Morton.

Sure, Jose Altuve had become a living legend, and George Springer had just hit 500 home runs, and Carlos Correa had just proposed to his girlfriend. Despite all that, I was completely struck by this 33-year-old right-hander who had just recorded the final out after four excellent innings in his first relief appearance in nearly 10 years.

Four days before that, I had watched him pitch into the seventh inning of Game 4. A week before that, he had thrown five scoreless innings against the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS. Who was this guy? What in the world did I just watch? Charlie Morton did that?!

For nearly a decade, Morton was on pace to be a top-tier answer in a round of "Remember Some Guys" in 2026. "Whoa, yeah, Charlie Morton! He was on the Pirates, right?"

Then the Astros plucked him out of mediocrity and helped transform him into a bona fide postseason legend. Voilà! No need to remember him as some random back-end starter. Baseball fans would never forget his name again.

But even after Morton's performance in October 2017, I remember thinking that was the grand finale of his story. It seemed like the culmination of years of hard work and persistence: landing on the right team at the right time and achieving ultimate baseball glory. It was a storybook ending if I’d ever seen one.

In fact, a month before he recorded that final out at Dodger Stadium, Morton himself suggested that his playing career could come to an end sooner rather than later:

Oops. Never mind! It turns out that was only the beginning.

When Morton takes the ball for the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday in Game 3 of the NLCS, it will be the third time he faces the Dodgers in October, and he is once again with a new team.

He'll see many of the same faces. Chris Taylor, Corey Seager, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger were all in the lineup in Game 7 in 2017. Max Muncy, Will Smith and Mookie Betts joined the L.A. juggernaut in time to face Morton when he was with the Rays in the 2020 World Series. This year, Trea Turner is the latest fresh face in Dodger blue. I’m not sure Seager & Co. thought they’d still be having to overcome Morton in the postseason four years after that first World Series face-off, but here we are.

This once anonymous innings-eater is now revered as one of the great postseason pitchers of his era. His 70.2 playoff innings trail only the tallies of Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, Adam Wainwright, Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, David Price, Gerrit Cole and Walker Buehler among active pitchers. Nearly all of those guys were super-hyped first-round picks we knew we’d one day see in huge games.

Morton is clearly the outlier among that group, and he didn’t start compiling his postseason résumé until he was 33 (only Verlander can claim more postseason innings at 33 or older). But even with the late start, Morton has established himself in that upper echelon of big-game pitchers.

How exactly did we get here? What changed to allow Morton to become this kind of pitcher?

Well, as is often the case for pitchers taking a leap, he started throwing much harder.

In 2002, when Morton was a tall, lanky right-hander at Barlow High School in Redding, Connecticut, here’s what Baseball America had to say about his prospects heading into the draft: "The 6-foot-4 180-pounder has an ideal pitcher's frame with long arms and the chance for above-average stuff. He throws a fastball at 87-90 mph now and may reach 94-95 one day because he has excellent arm speed."

One day, indeed. But it took a while!

In the first eight years of his career, Morton’s fastball never averaged higher than 92.9 mph. The uptick in velo didn’t seem to arrive until 2016, his age-32 season. That was his lone year in Philadelphia, when he averaged 94.3 mph on his heater, albeit in only four starts before he tore his hamstring running to first base at the end of April, cutting his season short. Five years later, though, Morton's heater is still regularly in the mid-90s, with excellent movement as well.

Throwing harder surely helps, but his arsenal has evolved in other ways, too. For the first five seasons of his career, Morton threw both a slider and a curveball. He ultimately ditched the mid-80s slider in favor of a high-80s cutter that he still utilizes today. The shift in repertoire also cleared the way for the true star of the show: his mind-bending, knee-buckling curveball.

Morton threw a curveball alongside the slider earlier in his career, but its usage didn’t tick up significantly until he arrived in Houston in 2017, when he threw it a then-career-high 28.4% of the time. This regular season, curveballs accounted for nearly 37% of Morton’s pitches, and it’s not difficult to understand why.

It isn't only fun to watch. By Statcast’s Run Value, no curveball was more effective than Morton’s in 2021, and only six pitches of any type were better. The average spin rate on Morton's curve is in the 98th percentile among all breaking pitches, and that spin rate stayed elite even after the league cracked down on foreign substances midseason.

Some dudes just know how to spin it, sticky stuff or not. Morton has always been one of those guys, and once he finally harnessed his curveball effectively, it translated into greater success on the mound than he'd ever had before.

To illustrate this transformation further, let’s remember how, uh, not good Morton was in the first half of his career. From 2008 to 2016, 87 pitchers made at least 150 starts (Morton made 161). Here’s where Morton ranked among those 87:

*ERA: 83rd
*ERA+: 84th
*FIP: 57th
*WHIP: 85th
*K%: 71st
*K-BB%: 76th
*BAA: 80th
*OPS against: 72nd
*W/L%: 86th

From 2017 to 2021, 54 pitchers made at least 100 starts (Morton made 130). Here’s where Morton ranked among those 54:

*ERA: Eighth
*ERA+: Ninth
*FIP: Fourth
*WHIP: Eighth
*K%: Ninth
*K-BB%: 10th
*BAA: Seventh
*OPS against: Sixth
*W/L%: First

It's safe to say he figured something out.

No matter how Game 3 or this NLCS goes, it’s likely not the last we’ll see of Morton in October. Although he has hinted at retirement in the past few years, he signed an extension in September that will keep him in Atlanta for at least one more season.

Morton explained then that he felt healthy enough to continue pitching at a high level, and he loves being with the Braves, a team that should be right back in the postseason chase again next year.

When I wrote about Joc Pederson last week, I said I didn’t know October without him. The same goes for Morton.

I’m so glad the 2017 World Series was the first chapter and not the last for Contender Chuck. I can’t wait to see what magic he has left.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.