Charlie Morton on free-agent decision: ‘The Orioles started to make more and more sense’
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The Orioles signed right-handed pitcher Charlie Morton to a one-year, $15 million contract on Friday. On Wednesday, the 41-year-old talked with the media about his decision to sign with the team, and his hopes for the 2025 Orioles.
These answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why did you choose to continue pitching, and why with the Orioles?
“I think I’ve been weighing that decision every offseason for the past four or five years, frankly. But I think it was definitely, towards the end of last year we were in a tight race for the wild-card spot, and I felt like my year hadn’t gone how I had hoped and I really wasn’t thinking about it a whole lot.
“I was thinking more about trying to take it all in, because I thought that there was a really good chance that that was going to be my last year. And I got a chance to pitch in a couple games down the stretch and, my last start, I remember walking off the field and just this sinking feeling in my stomach that it just didn’t feel right.
“I felt like I could have done better. I felt like I still had the tools to be a good pitcher in the big leagues and I think that definitely had a large impact on the decision to play. But that wasn’t it. It wasn’t solely, ‘Man, I just didn’t feel good about it.’ Because there’s no guarantee that you feel good about it. There’s no guarantee it ends how you want it to end.
“I was really on the fence, even just whether or not I wanted to hear if there were any offers…and when the Orioles called, there were a couple of teams that called that I think would just work logistically with myself and my family.
“There’s the group of guys that are in that clubhouse that have done some special things and a chance to be a part of that group, and getting to know the guys and getting to know the staff and the city of Baltimore, which I’ve loved playing when we visited, and they’re just a really talented group and young and exciting and I think, at the end of the day, and after thinking about all that, I decided, and my wife supports me, my kids support me, to give it a shot. So, I don’t think it was any one factor, but just kind of how it all came together.”
How have you been able to pitch well and be durable into your 40’s?
“I look back 10 years ago, and to the last pitches I threw as a Pittsburgh Pirate as a sinker baller, and to know how much I have changed, how personally, professionally, physically I’ve changed. I’ve changed my delivery. I’ve changed my workouts. There have been times where I changed what I ate, or just to try to be more cognizant of just, pretty much everything that I was doing with my body,
“Whether that was my mechanics or whatever, my pitch mix, I’ve been able to stay relatively healthy for the past seven or eight years and I started to get a better idea of what I was doing with my delivery and I think throwing away. that doesn’t hurt. Because I had [surgery on] m left hip, my right hip. I had [Tommy John]in ’12 and I had a hamstring surgery in ’16 and I thought that was probably pretty much the end of it.
“After that ’16 season, I was like, ‘Man, if I could get a chance to sign on a major-league deal after the ’16 season.’ The Astros signed me to a two-year deal and I went in there and they were just like, ‘Hey, man, you need to throw four-seamers up. You need to throw hard and try to strike guys out and get swing and miss stuff.’ And I never heard that before.
“I’ve been able to step on and rely on my curveball a lot so that’s allowed me some grace to make some mistakes, having a good secondary pitch that has developed into a primary pitch, essentially. And I think I have the levers to still throw hard enough and I’ve been able to stay in decent shape well enough to produce the force that I need to to throw hard enough and I’m sure a lot of it is just luck.”
What can you bring to the Orioles’ young clubhouse?
“I’d love to say that I have the answers. I don’t. I think that as an individual you fit in different ways with different groups of guys. I’m not going to be the same guy that I was with the Rays in the clubhouse. I’m not going to be the same guy that I was in the Astros’ or the Braves’ clubhouse.
“I can impact the clubhouse by being present for my teammates and caring about them, getting to know them on a personal level, a deeper level, and that comes with time. That comes after time when you can actually sit down with somebody and talk to them and look them in the eye and have real conversations and I haven’t done that yet.
“I think that’s the main priority, is getting in there and getting to know the guys and spending time getting to know who they are, where they come from and things like that. But I think if you truly care about the guys that are to your left and your right, I think everything will take care of itself.”
Why did you leave the Atlanta Braves after four seasons there?
“I don’t take anything personally. I think that I’ll always care about everyone in that clubhouse and all the guys that I spent the last four years with. I get the business side of things, and there’s things that can’t be said and divulged, and people would never say to me, because it’s not their obligation to do that. I don’t have a right. I don’t need to know what happened.
“When [my agents] let me know that there were a couple other teams interested and one of them was the Orioles, [my wife] Cindy and I started talking about it, and we started to think that if you have to make a decision, which I feel like I did, I had to make a decision whether or not I was going to keep playing.
“And then you start to make a decision about where, and if anyone that you would be interested in playing for is interested in you. The Orioles just started to make more and more sense. I wish nothing but the best for the guys over there, and I’ll miss them. I’ll cherish the times we had and everything, the ups and downs. But I think that we’re landing in a really good spot.”
What kind of leadership can you bring to the Orioles?
“I know that the guys are young and I know that you might have experiences or some insight into moments that you’ve experienced yourself. When you get to know guys and they trust you and you can have those kinds of conversations. I think that’s where the value is. I’m not sure that me walking into a clubhouse from some kind of pedestal or somewhere I’d put myself because of something that I’ve experienced is necessarily a good way to look at it from my perspective.
“I just don’t work that way, socially or professionally. I think, frankly, that wouldn’t be my genuine self or my authentic self. I don’t think that I’ve ever excelled at doing that. I think, yeah, sure, I mean, could I talk to a room or could I have things to say? I’m sure that opportunity could arise. But I think the value and my natural inclinations are to be caring and truly interested in getting to know people, and from there, forming relationships where there’s trust.”