The Braves announced today that veteran right-hander Charlie Morton had been placed on the 15-day injured list with right index finger inflammation. Fellow righty Allan Winans was called up in the corresponding move. The move not only ends Morton’s regular season, but also means that he will likely be unable to pitch in the NLDS as well, as he won’t be eligible to be activated until after rosters are set for the series. That said, if the Braves need to make an IL move midway through the series, it’s possible that they could activate Morton as a corresponding move when replacing the hypothetical injured player.
In any case, the loss of Morton is a major blow to a Braves team that has reigned as baseball’s best club throughout most of the 2023 campaign. Slated to be the club’s Game 3 starter this postseason behind the club’s dual aces Max Fried and Spencer Strider, the 39-year-old hurler has put together a vintage season for the Braves this year with a 3.64 ERA that’s 21% better than league average by measure of ERA+ and is backed up by a solid 3.88 FIP. Morton boasts a solid 25.6% strikeout rate and has generated groundballs at a solid 43.3% clip this season.
With Morton likely out for the NLDS, the club figures to turn to right-hander Bryce Elder to take the ball behind Fried and Strider. Elder was nothing short of incredible in the first half with a 2.97 ERA in his first eighteen starts, but the young righty has struggled badly in recent months with a 5.40 ERA and a nearly matching 5.37 FIP in his last 13 appearances. Another possibility would be right-hander Kyle Wright, who posted a 3.19 ERA en route to a MLB-leading 21-win campaign last year, but the 27-year-old hurler has battled injuries and ineffectiveness throughout the year, posting a brutal 7.71 ERA across just 25 1/3 innings of work. With limited time remaining for Wright to right the ship, it seems likely Atlanta will opt to utilize Elder to round out the playoff rotation until Morton is eligible to return.
In the meantime, replacing Morton on the roster is Winans, a 27-year-old rookie who sports a 4.50 ERA and 2.76 FIP across four spot starts this season. He’ll make another start this afternoon in game one of the club’s doubleheader against the Nationals opposite right-hander Jackson Rutledge.
The idea that Morton was getting the ball instead of Elder is perhaps false. Despite his postseason resume he is extremely streaky and has been pitching worse lately. Even when he is good, many of those times he is shaky at best. He did have a couple excellent runs and it would’ve been nice if he could get on one and then he probably would’ve started game 3. But is it really much of a blow? Not in the division series. Going forward it is because he may be rusty if he gets to pitch.
Also Elder hasn’t been as bad as those last 13 starts would seem to say. He had a few 7 run games earlier in that span and a quite a few good ones since including a great start against LAD. In fact putting the span back 13 starts is a bit of a trick almost, to make it seem like he’s been very bad recently. Yes the last 2 weren’t good, but Charlie hasnt really been very good in that span either. I don’t trust Morton. He walks too many people to get away with it in the playoffs
Also I mean how bias can you get in showing Morton’s strikeout rate and ground ball rate but leaving out his BB rate. Any other time it would be mentioned right after the K rate. Not to mention he also leads the league in hit batters. Over 80 walks in 160 innings and 12 hit batters.
Smith-Shawver? Waldrep?
Elder would normally be okay, but not against the Phillies. Face the Phillies Strider, Fried and a pitcher they’ve never seen.
Agreed…I don’t want Turner, Harper, Bohm, Castellanos seeing Elder again, they’ll carve him up. But don’t undersell the D-backs.
Honestly every non strider start might end up being a bullpen game. At least with the softer scheduling for the NLDS. Also, give me playoff charlie over elder any day of the week. Morton is a gamer.
Possibly, but Morton walking guys 1BB per IP is not going to cut it. You’re not winning a game in the playoffs walking 7 like he did vs. NYM earlier this year.
>Morton .. is extremely streaky and
> has been pitching worse lately
Bryce Elder since July 1–
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7 of 14 starts 4ER or more
7 of 14 starts 2ER or less
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75IP 73H 43ER 11HR 31BB 47K
Very inconsistent. Not better than Morton. Doesn’t have “power” or strikeout stuff, either, which usually gets knocked around in the playoffs.
Once again you are speaking of “lately” and choosing several months ago as your starting point, conveniently going back to when Elder was doing poorly which was mostly over 2 months ago if I’m not mistaken
The only reason that Morton stretch seems so good is because it coincided with his best stretch of the season which was over. All year he’s managed to pitch around the BB. I know he usually allows few ER. But it’s usually shaky as can be except for that great stretch. I mean he walked 7 and allowed no runs once
My point really is it’s almost a toss up. Not the horrible loss the article says. Not for the NLDS at least. IDK who’d Id rather have. I’m not saying Elder for sure.
What also gets knocked around in the playoffs, and this is my point, is a guy allowing 5 free base runners per 9. He pitches around it well because of the Ks and ground balls but I don’t trust it. It’s also luck
Age 40 and beyond is historically bad for players
Morton 40 on Nov 12th
Walks bad—free baserunners.
Morton has control issues this year.
Elder is hit-or-miss. Who shows up?
July 1 was picked because it splits the season in half. What have you done for me lately? That should matter the most.
I don’t see what’s so odd about that assumption. Elder has a 4.70 ERA since May, 5.16 since June, 4.74 since July, 4.57 this month. In truth, he’s been more inconsistent then Morton for some time now.
@Darkside Who is that #30 in your profile pic, my eyes are too strained to make it out and I can’t seem to enlarge the pic. Just curio…thnx man
Luke Williams. First home run and it was a walk off. June 9, 2021.
Yes, Luke Williams. I had previously been using Reid Brignac from 2014, so come two years ago I needed a little refresh.
Elder has never pitched a full season and if you want to point to pitchers not playing well recently Elder has not been good in the 2nd half. Talk about inconsistent.
Part of this I do think is fatigue for Elder. He’s not use to this. Long term I love him but Morton was the right choice for this October until Elder gets more experience and builds up with some full seasons under his belt.
Well we are also talking about a pitcher who is like 40 so I think that’s also relevant if you are talking of fatigue
It might be relevant if it wasn’t for the fact Morton’s ERA since August 1st is 3.68 compared to 3.62 April – July. Where is this fatigue you speak of?
Meanwhile Elder has something like 4.74 ERA since august 1st. Vastly different than April – July if you ask me
Why don’t you just accept you said something stupid and move on? We all say something stupid every so often. I do too. Don’t be one of those people who digs themselves a deeper hole when it’s extremely obvious that you just need to chalk it up as one of those moments and move on.
You act like I pulled the Elder being fatigued theory out of a hat or something by the way.
How do you account for having like a 3.00 ERA April – July and a 4.74 ERA in August and September
If it’s not fatigue then he just sucks. I’m actually trying to take the optimistic perspective here
Same type of rationale with Kyle Wright. To me he’s clearly still shaking off the rust. The alternative if it’s not rust is that he just sucks.
So if you don’t think Elder has some fatigue then I have some bad news, he just sucks. So which is it?
Once again this is because Morton had a great stretch in there. If you watch the last bit of his starts he has lost it again. He can’t control where the ball is going. This is what plagued him earlier in the year. Instead of oversimplifying it by lumping all the numbers together going back to some date why not look at elders recent GAME LOG. He gave up 4 runs 3 times. Yes. He was also dominant 4 times. Now Morton was pitching great that’s true but all 3 of the last 3 for Morton have been horrible. Even when he only gave up 2 in 4 innings he gave up 9 base runners. So the comments saying “what have you done lately” are dumb. We could chalk this up to a bad month but given the extreme streakiness of Morton this year it’s clearly a return to badness. So no imbecile I am not making a stupid comment. Please refute this post
Maybe Morton’s index finger has been bothering him for longer (his past 3 starts long) than he has disclosed?
Elder probably sees the lineup once and hands it off to kyle wright. I’m betting that they piggy back innings to try and bridge it to the 5th/6th inning.
Morton would get the ball game 3 if he wasn’t hurt. Same manager who started Kechuel twice over Soroka………
That’s the ticket!!! Start Sarotka in Game 3. The answer staring us in the face.
Are you basically having a conversation with yourself down here?
Yes. Why do you care?
IDK, it just seems kind of weird.
@Rishi, since Aug 1st Morton and Elder have each pitched 9 games. Morton 18 ERs Elder 26 ERs. Sorry but just not seeing how Elder has been pitching better lately.
And Elder choked tonight, as expected.
2.2 IP 5 H 6 R 6 ER 1 BB 4 K 2 HR
Charlie would have been Game 3 starter, no doubt about it.
They’re not making past the NLDS anyway. Philly clearly beats them. AZ would win in a five game series and if the Cubs catch the Dbacks, Chicago sweeps the Braves
You got lotto numbers too?
Arizona – 20th in ERA and BA. They won’t get far
Culberson has added pitching to his resume in aaa Gwinnett. There’s your #3 right there.
Because the baseball playoffs are sooooo predictable and always turn out the way everyone thinks.
Not like Atlanta won a World Series starting Tucker Davidson and Dylan Lee (who’d never started before).
pfft fun.
I’m an American League guy, but just sayin, I wouldn’t want to be facing the Phillies in this postseason right off the bat; or even in a 5 game series. They seem to be clicking atm.
Charlie Morton, phillies legend…..
Happy for his success, just not this postseason and not @Philly. Rumour has it, he’s a really good dude….
Yeah he seems super chill
Hopefully he retires so the Braves aren’t tempted to waste 20 million on him in 2024.
If they won’t the Yankees will lol
Not a good time to lose all these pitchers to injury
You’re right. It’s a great time. Go Dodgers ^_^
Celebrating other teams injuries???? Go touch some grass. Karma is a B
I wonder will “magically” get a hangnail and have to go to the IL when the 15 days are up…
I remember when Nolan Ryan had blisters in the mid seventies and Steve Carlton developed one near the end of his career. If those two miss time for blisters than anyone can.
It’s not just Charlie Morton and Max Fried. Kyle Wright isn’t right and Mike Soroko is out too. So, it’s a staff of Brian Snitker and Bryce Elder.
It’s a staff of Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder and Brian Snitker magic.
If Fried comes back for game 1 or 2…and looks vintage max fried…this is all a moot point.
Soroka hasn’t been relevant in 3 years. Why even act like he’s been a decent option this season?
Anything that’ll sort of level the playing field against ATL for once.
Will Wright right the ship with his right hand?
Would you go with the elder Morton , or the younger elder ?
Braves pitching staff has taken a big hit the last few weeks. Going to need all those big boppers to step up in the NLDS.
Absolutely beautiful news. I thought this was old Max Fried news, until I read it was Charlie Morton. Both of these guys are effective against the Dodgers. Niiice. They can join some of our pitchers on the DL. Feeling good about the playoffs this year.
If the Braves and Dodgers have one potential Achilles heel heading into the post-season, it’s starting pitching. Both teams have seen their share of injuries with SP, the Dodgers more so than the Braves. But with and Fried (Blister) not 100%, the Braves have exposure there, too.
On the other hand, LA may be better suited to handle that problem because of an excellent bullpen. Other than Iglesius, I’m not enamored with the Braves other relievers.
Either way, one of them is gonna have to get through Philly in their initial playoff series, and that ain’t gonna be easy. I don”t see their possible first round opponents, Cubs, D-Backs or Marlins, posing much threat to them.
Meanwhile, would not be shocked if any of the aforementioned three potential WC teams gave the Brewers a run for the money.
Bold Prediction Dept.: Phillies vs. Baltimore in the Word Series.
Lost track of Kyle Wright this year until his mention here; has he become Sorotka 2.0???
Were the Braves the best team 2 years ago? They won but were they the best team? It all comes down to one thing, who plays the best. I don’t know why people are trashing Charlie Morton, him not being able to pitch is a hit to us. Charlie Morton has had an amazing career and has been a dependable player who has given his all. It hurts but like I’ve already stated the best team does not always win the World Series, the team that gets hot does.
This is the 3rd year in a row Morton has finished the season injured.
’21 WS Broken Leg
’22 DS Conebacker, didn’t pitch again.
’23 Finger inflammation
2 of the 3 wasn’t his doing but it is a track record and at 40 it is something to take on account. He has been inconsistent the last 2 seasons, its time for the Braves to move on from Charlie.
This does help the Cubs for when they face the Braves, along with the injuries to the Marlins. Now the Cubs just have to play these final games like it’s the playoffs.