11:35am: Yahoo’s Jeff Passan brings to light an “interesting wrinkle” in Morton’s contract (tweet). The trade triggered a clause that converts his $9.5MM 2017 team option into a mutual option. As Passan notes, Morton is now very likely to hit the free agent market after the season.
9:39am: The Phillies have acquired right-handed starting pitcher Charlie Morton from the Pirates, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on Twitter. The Pirates will pick up right-handed pitcher David Whitehead in the swap. The Phillies will pick up the tab for Morton. He is signed for $8MM in 2016 with a $9.5MM club option for 2017 ($1MM buyout). In a related move, the Phillies designated pitcher A.J. Achter to make room on the 40-man roster, per MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki (tweet).
Morton, 32, is a veteran of eight major league seasons. He has a career 4.54 ERA with 6.28 K/9, 3.38 BB/9, and a 55 percent ground ball rate. Phillies fans will find his delivery uncannily familiar – Morton almost perfectly mimics the throwing motion of former Phillies star Roy Halladay.
The ground ball specialist has struggled with health in recent seasons, but he’s been modestly effective when on the field. Although he posted a 4.81 ERA in 129 innings last season, ERA estimators like xFIP (3.87) and SIERA (3.89) were more positive. While Morton had a rocky start to his early career, he’s actually projected to contribute a sub-4.00 ERA in 2016.
Morton joins a suddenly deep Phillies rotation that includes Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, Jeremy Hellickson, Vincent Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer, and Matt Harrison. It’s unclear what, if any, role Harrison can fill. Even if Harrison spends the season on the disabled list, the club seems prepared to avoid forcing an unready pitcher like David Buchanan or Alec Asher from making regular starts.
In Whitehead, the Pirates acquired a former 34th round pick from the 2013 draft. Last season at High-A, Whitehead pitched to a 4.44 ERA with 6.24 K/9 and 3.38 BB/9 in 25 starts. Scouting reports describe him as a ground ball pitcher with a low-90’s sinker. He may have a back-of-the-rotation ceiling.
For Pittsburgh, this deal was mostly about escaping the $9MM guaranteed to Morton over the next two seasons. After dealing Neil Walker last week, the club has the necessary resources to pursue a starting pitcher in free agency. The Pirates are often tied to inexpensive reclamation projects like Justin Masterson or Mat Latos.
The swap necessitated the Phillies to make a 40-man roster move. Achter drew the short straw. The right-handed reliever was acquired off waivers from the Twins earlier in the offseason. The 27-year-old has a 90 mph fastball. He’s posted strong numbers are Triple-A but has yet to succeed at the major league level.
Love this trade for the Pirates.
Poor Chuck. Nice guy but I never understood why they gave him a 3 year deal when he never pitched a full season.
Like it for the Pirates as well but what are the non contending Phillies doing giving up a young arm for an old one? He’s not much of an innings eater either.
My guess is just to add another veteran arm into the rotation. Whitehead is a non-prospect and Morton is good enough that his contract isn’t considered awful where he required a Touki-like prospect to dump him to clear up the space. Side note – I’ll never get my head around that trade.
Touki Toussaint was the guy that the Diamondbacks traded away for a salary dump right? His numbers don’t seem great but the guy Arizona signed with the money Yoan Lopez doesn’t look any better. Was a big topic in June wasn’t it.
And now that I mention it this was between the Braves and the Diamondbacks as well lol. The Braves must be making Stewart drunk or something because man are they robbing them a lot.
Haha yup. Atlanta is brilliant in that they’re just using Arizona as basically a 2nd farm system for their own organization. As a Phillies fan, I hate it but Atlanta has made some great moves (especially with Arizona).
Yeah, that deal never made sense…not at the time and not now. They essentially gave away an elite prospect to save $9M (half Arroyo’s salary plus the buyout), then turn around only a few months later and give $200M+ to Greinke? What sense does that make? If they can afford to sign Greinke now, they could have afforded to pay Arroyo for the remainder of the year. The D-Backs are very confusing. The previous regime was intent on getting rid of certain, quality players. They looked long and hard to dump Upton, they traded an elite pitching prospect in Bauer for a weak-hitting shortsop, who they turned into worse pitchers than Bauer? Now this regime? it might work, but it has a big chance to blew up in their faces.
Towers was one horrible GM himself but Stewarts right behind him IMO.
I know Toussaint was ranked in the top 100 prospects going into last season, but aside from being drafted high in the first round, what has he done in his short professional career? 2015 was really an awful season for him, and his introductory season into pro baseball was poor too. He has major control problems and I have a hard time considering him an elite prospect at this point in his career. I agree, it was a strange and perhaps a bad trade by Arizona, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves with Toussaint. He has yet to put up any numbers that justify his prospect status.
Even if its only 140 innings, its a useable piece for the Phillies in return for a player who is unlikely to make it to the bigs. Morton himself might even be turned into a better prospect than Whitehead at the 2016 trade deadline. This is a trade where both team’s got exactly what they wanted. There are no losers
How good is Whitehead. Never heard of him before.
The Phillies have a starting rotation now with Nola,Heckison, Eickhof, maybe either Matt Harrison, David Buchanan, Severino Gonzalez and Adam Morgan will take the last two spots in the rotation.
And now Charlie Morton will be in the rotation too , so the Phillies could try to trade Severino Gonzalez, or Adam Morgan.
Nah. Severino and Morgan can be optioned to AAA.
good pick up for the phillies if you ignore his contract. It isn’t crazy high but Morton despite his era had more good starts than bad. (52% QS percentage) makes a fair back end starter as long as you watch his pitch count…. he had ‘a few’ blow outs though
For the pirates more of a salary dump i would assume so they can pick up a higher priced starter. With morton gone they only have 3 mostly for sure starters for their opening day rotation in Cole Liriano and Niese.
I understand the anguish of waiting for this guy to finally live up to his potential but unless there is another move coming down the pike I’m not seeing the upside for the Pirates.
Phillies gonna win some ball game this year. Not pushing wild Card status but these young kids can play. Now a decent staff can help this team. Still few years away but I like what they are doing. Give the kids some confidence don’t make them score 7 runs a night to win.
maybe they can flip hellickson, Morton, and if Harrison gives them anything, for some young prospects.
Nothing says rebuilding like a trading for a 32-year-old pitcher.
Honestly, if trading for Charlie Morton keeps the workload off the Phillies’ bullpen and does not rush up any young starting pitchers, then I can understand this trade. However, I am confident the Phillies could have a signed a SP looking to rebuild his worth instead, especially around $9MM (Morton money).
This deal makes me think that the Bucs may be about to sign a FA pitcher who would be better that Charlie. Would have gotten an even lower prospect for Charlie if they waited until after the signing announce as all of MLB would know they were for sure dumping the salary. May not happen but this does not appear just to be a salary dump. Locke would still be the 6th guy and possible swing man out of the bullpen a la
Joe Blanton.
If u want Morton to be at least halfway decent the Phils better play some damn good d….can’t say I’ll miss ground chuck much but best off luck to him really hope Neal is adding an upgrade now to bridge the gap for Glasgow kingham and taillion
Not a terrible move by the Phillies. They give up someone who likely never cracks a big-league roster spot and some cash (of which they have a ton) and get a veteran who can eat some innings while they rebuild. I’d rather them burn out Charlie Morton’s arm than Aaron Nola’s. The Phillies are a 65-70 win team…unless they were going to break the bank and sign a ton of free agents—which I thought they should have done—this is the way to go. Get by without giving up much depth until they’re ready to contend again.
They can do that in 2 years when the last of the bad money is off the books.
Talk about dollars for donuts….bahahaha phils got fleeced.
This deal is a win/win, pirates shave $8M off the books to use elsewhere and the Phils get a low-risk, med/high reward SP. Morton has favorable metrics, only thing is he needs to stay healthy. Trading for him brings in another arm so that the Phils don’t have to rely on Severino Gonzalez, Adam Morgan, Alec Asher, or David Buchanan; with whom the last two we’re so abismal last year they’re lucky they have roster spots. I wouldn’t expect this to be the last move the Phils make for a SP, along with Morton, Hellickson is an injury concern and Harrison was simply a salary dump as well, expecting him to do anything in 2016 after all the surgeries he’s gone through would be kind of unfair.
And while some say, “sign a guy who can rebuild his value!”, it’s easier said than done. I think we’d say that the 3 most appealing SP’s on the market in that category based on stuff and age would be Fister, Latos, and Henderson Alvarez. Alvarez won’t be ready for opening day and I think guys like Chris Young with the Royals show that “rebuild value guys” can do it on winning teams too. I think these guys would prefer waiting an hoping to get a call from a team like the Yankees, Royals, Rangers, Cardinals, Pirates, or even the Mets (if they try to trade one of their big 4 to boost the offense) than accept a mid-level salary from a team like the Phillies. And you could probably say that for older, “mentor” type pitchers like Bartolo Colon or Jeremy Guthrie.
Plus the Phillies can’t lose unless this non-prospect turns into a #2 which I’m pretty sure we know that’s unlikely. The only guaranteed money the Phils have on the books for 2017 is the money owed to Matt Harrison (everyone else is pre-arb or arb eligible) and with a brand new TV contract starting the Phils may have more $$$ to spend than any team in baseball.
And they get potentially two years of control of Morton. If he pitches brilliantly, the Phils can demand more in a trade because of the extra year of control as teams wouldn’t be necessarily picking up a rental. If he pitches league average or the Phils don’t get an appealing offer come July, they can hold onto him and shop him next winter or hold onto him for 2017. And if he’s hurt for significant time or just blows his chances, the Phils can pay the buyout next winter and be done. I don’t see how it’s anything but a win for the Phils?
Funny on all of the Pittsburgh local sites the local reactions. Just a week ago, everyone from local sports guys and of course the lemming fans followed along, all wanted the Pirates move either Morton or Locke or both. Both stink according to all. Now all are complaining about this was only a salary dump by the cheap Pirates. What happened to dump the bum??
not all where saying that, only the ones that look at ERA as the way to determine if you should keep a pitcher.
Morton makes a decent back end starter, i would’ve wanted to keep him but I assume the pirates are looking to get a reliable 3 guy.. that costs more money
Pirates making payroll space for Kazmir perhaps?
Seems like it but would this be enough?
8 million off the books for both Alvarez and Morton. Doubt kazmir gets 16 mil a year, should be enough
Why would the Phillies want Morton? They trying to make a run on the Reds and the 2nd worst record in the Majors?
Cheap stopgag contract. Last year he had a ton of injuries and pitched well from 2011-2014 (3.74 ERA in 500 IP).
He and Hellickson can be trade chips are the deadline.
Nola, Thompson, Velasquez, Eickoff Morton, Hellickson, Oberholtzer, Morgan, Gonzalez, Asher and then some for the Phillies rotation depth. This is beautiful.
Whitehead is a non-prospect, so be basically got Morton for free.
Its a good deal.. they gave up a non-prospect for Morton, a guy that can be flipped in July, just like Hellickson. Meanwhile, It allows their young starters to mature in the minors and not be forced into action on the MLB level when they just aren’t ready yet.
If both Hellickson and Morton pitch decent, they will be dealt in July, allowing Thompson, Appel, Eflin, Lively or Morgan to be called up to replace them.
The Phillies are looking really good in our newly revised farm system (also having this year’s #1 Overall pick, 39th, 77th and 107th picks.
They will have a top 3-5 minor league system… and the most money to spend on FA’s
The future of the Phillies to become contenders again can be as early as 2017. And in 2016, I can see them pushing a .500 team easily.
I really think the Phillies are going to surprise people next year. I’m not calling for a playoff run, but a .500 record would not surprise me in the least. I really think they are set up for a quick turnaround.
Nah. They’ll be better than last year but I’m still expecting them to draft in the top 5 in 2017. Not enough experience on their roster and no Cole Hamels. They really shouldn’t be looking to contend for two more years anyway. By then, the last of the bad money (Matt Harrison) will have been phased out and most of the prospects they are getting will have reached the Majors.
At least they have accepted the fact that they need to rebuild unlike the Reds.
Nah? So you have decided I am wrong? Perhaps, “I disagree” wouldn’t make you sound so arrogant. You are speaking about the next two years as if they are written in stone already. A lot of people were also saying that the Cubs and Astros shouldn’t try to contend until 2016 because they weren’t ready yet or the Rangers were fools for acquiring Cole Hamels because they had no chance at a playoff spot last season. If you think the Phillies, who can easily support a $150 million dollar payroll, will hold up for an additional year just because of Matt Harrison relatively small salary, you are crazy. Or in other words, I disagree.
1. When the Rangers acquired Cole Hamels they went on record that they traded for him so that he could help them in the future. They wanted another ace to pair with Yu Darvish in 2016 and beyond. They weren’t trading for him for 2015, they were trading for him for the next few years. They just so happened to catch fire afterwards.
2. When you rebuild you have to commit to rebuilding. As a Padres fan I have learned this the hard way. The whole “rebuilding but at the same time trying to compete” thing doesn’t work.
3. The Astros didn’t make any big signings, just signed several relievers because the bullpen was a big weakness and brought up all the kids. Similarly, the Cubs made one big signing (Jon Lester) and brought up all the kids. Neither team was expecting to be as good as they were in 2015 but success came quickly. The Phillies should follow their model when they are ready to compete.
4. It’s not that they can’t afford Matt Harrison. But when they come back, they need to come back at 100% which they can’t do with Harrison taking up $13m of their payroll. So it is in their best interest to not make any win-now moves until he comes off the books.
Suddenly deep Phillies staff?
It’s garbage, a few young guys but none with high ceiling.
The vets are journeyman scraps.
It’s another 90+ losses easy.