Charlie Morton agrees to one-year, $15M deal with Braves

Charlie Morton started his career with the Atlanta Braves and now he is returning to them on a one-year, $15 million contract.

Twelve years ago, Morton made his debut in the major-league in the Braves. In most of the following years, he did not shine much until joining the Houston Astros in 2017.

The two-time All-Star played a key role as Tampa Bay reached the World Series for the first time in 12 years in the shortened season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Like Tampa, Atlanta is hoping Morton can be one of the final pieces that puts the team over the hump and back into the World Series.

Morton joined the Tampa Bay Rays after that and continued his great performances.

Overall, Charlie Morton went 18-8 with a 3.33 ERA with the Rays, and finished third in the AL Cy Young voting in 2019.

A World Series victor with the Houston Astros in 2017, Morton tallied 42 strikeouts and an ERA of 4.74 in nine regular-season appearances in 2020. He then slipped up in Game 3 of the World Series, giving up five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Morton can give what the Braves need, a decent improvement on starters.

Atlanta's strategy of targeting high-dollar free agents on one-year deals, which has been largely successful under president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, has been repeated with Morton and Smyly, who signed for $11 million.