The Baltimore Orioles learnt shortly before the calendar turned from 2024 to 2025 that their connection with Corbin Burnes would be for one year, similar to the New York Yankees’ stint with Juan Soto. While Burnes did not sign for Soto’s money, the former Cy Young Award winner received a six-year, $210 million contract from the Arizona Diamondbacks, allowing him to stay close to his home base.
Pivoting after losing a prominent free agent might indicate a variety of things. The Yankees soon focused on signing Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract, trading for Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams, and signing Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year, $12.5 million agreement. About a week after Burnes declined a purported franchise-record offer from the Orioles, the AL East runner-up signed Charlie Morton to a one-year, $15 million contract. It is viewed as a transaction to provide the Orioles with more alternatives, with the prospect of future additions, rather than a complete reversal from Burnes’ departure.
Aside from Burnes, the Orioles used ten different starters (excluding openers) last season, and their overall ERA of 3.77 was tied for fifth with the Chicago Cubs, trailing only the Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves, and Detroit Tigers. And their 62 victories from starters were third in the MLB, trailing only the Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. Without Burnes, who won 15 games and allowed 63 earned runs in 194 1/3 innings, Baltimore’s starters aren’t as good. Without Burnes, the rotation’s ERA is 4.01, which is in the middle of the pack.
Zach Eflin, the Orioles’ steady veteran, made nine excellent starts after being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. Grayson Rodriguez, who has won 20 games in the last two seasons, also has promise, despite only making 20 starts and pitching 116 2/3 innings last season. While Morton is one of baseball’s oldest pitchers, the 41-year-old has thrown 328 2/3 innings in the last two seasons and made at least 30 starts in every complete season since making 25 for the Houston Astros in 2017, a feat shared only by Jose Berrios, Patrick Corbin, and Aaron Nola.
His innings total in every complete season since 2017 has been at least 163 1/3, and he has four seasons with at least 14 wins in that time. And then there’s the postseason experience, as Morton is a two-time World Series winner who joins a team hoping to advance after going 0-5 in the Division Series loss to the Texas Rangers and the wild-card loss to the Royals.
Morton is not necessarily a top-of-the-rotation option, like former Astros teammate Gerrit Cole or Red Sox newcomer Garrett Crochet. He is a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher with a track record that shows he can help, and it is now up to the Orioles to find someone fit to totally replace Burnes, despite recent success with veteran pitchers Jordan Lyles and Kyle Gibson.
The Orioles signed Morton around three weeks after signing Tomoyuki Sugano to a one-year contract. Sugano is six years younger than Morton and, like Morton, has vast experience as the ace for the Yomiuri Giants throughout a 12-year career in which he has been named an All-Star eight times while throwing a fastball average about 92 mph and demonstrating great command.
Morton is recognized for his curveball, which he threw 42% of the time and resulting in 102 strikeouts and an opponents’ average of.200, up from.177 in 2023. Like Sugano, the fastball is not at the top of the velocity range, averaging 94 mph, and it has resulted in hitters batting.281 and.292 over the last two seasons. These are not the big-ticket items that the Yankees are well-known for and have already acquired. Instead, it is a modest exercise, with the chance of future pitching movements following the loss of an ace who performed admirably in his only season with the Orioles.
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