Atlanta Braves: 3 best moves of the offseason so far

A former Braves farmhand is ready to close out his MLB career in Atlanta

While the Smyly one-year deal may not really move the needle, Atlanta signing former Braves farmhand Charlie Morton sure does. Morton has played 13 big league seasons, 12 since leaving the team who drafted him out of his native Connecticut back in 2002. Morton won a World Series with the 2017 Houston Astros and most recently was an AL All-Star with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Though 2021 will be Morton’s age-37 season, he is still a high-end playoff rotation pitcher. He was one of the three starters the AL champion Rays could trot out there last year on the quest to winning an improbable World Series. He not only gives the Braves’ young starting rotation a great leader to learn from, but he gives the middle-to-top-half of the Atlanta rotation some extra bite.

Morton may not have had a great regular season for the 2020 Rays with a 4.74 ERA in nine starts, but he was terrific for them in the ALDS vs. the division rival New York Yankees and in the ALCS vs. his former team in the Astros. Atlanta is this close to winning a championship and bringing back one of their own to help with this young core’s quest to do the impossible just feels incredible.

The idea is Morton will be either the Braves’ No. 2 or No. 3 starter right out of the gate. He will slot in behind Max Fried and probably ahead of Ian Anderson. Once Soroka comes back from his injury, Morton will kick down to No. 3 or No. 4, depending on how Anderson progresses in his first full big-league season. That quartet of Anderson, Fried, Morton and Soroka, plus Smyly, could work.