20 years after 1st spring camp, Morton reflects on journey

NORTH PORT, Fla. -- As Charlie Morton progressed through the early part of his career, did he ever think he would still be pitching at 39 years old? The Braves’ veteran hurler provided a clear answer on Thursday when asked how cool it was to be back at Spring Training 20 years after his first.

“[It’s cool] especially considering I didn’t think it was really going to work out,” Morton said. “After five or six years, I was thinking, ‘This is probably not [going to happen].’”

Morton, Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur all experienced Spring Training for the first time in 2003, at the Braves’ former complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Morton is the only member of this trio still adding to the back of his baseball card. But it should be noted that he didn’t even start tasting consistent success until after Francoeur ended his 12-year big league career.

Francoeur retired after the 2016 season and Morton’s career didn’t really take off until 2017, when as a 33-year-old right-hander he reunited with McCann to help the Astros win the World Series. As Morton concluded that Fall Classic with an impressive four-inning relief appearance in Game 7 at Dodger Stadium, it was hard to imagine this was the same guy who produced a 4.91 ERA while not advancing above Double-A through his first six Minor League seasons.

“He’s come a long way, that’s for sure,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “You never know what guys are going to do. You never know what they’re going to do with their careers and how they’re going to handle it. He’s been through a lot of changes, had different experiences and got a bunch of rings.”

Along with winning a World Series ring with the Astros and another with the Braves in 2021, Morton has established himself as one of the game’s top pitchers since resurrecting his career with Houston in 2017. He ranks eighth among all MLB pitchers with 18.8 fWAR (FanGraphs’ Wins Above Replacement) over the past six seasons.

The only pitchers to produce a better fWAR during this stretch are Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Aaron Nola, Gerrit Cole, Zack Wheeler, Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw. Pretty good company, huh?

Well, how about this? Morton has recorded 200 strikeouts in each of the past four 162-game seasons, each of which elapsed after he turned 34 years old. The only pitchers to record at least four 200-strikeout seasons at 34 or older are Randy Johnson (seven), Nolan Ryan (seven), Roger Clemens (four), Steve Carlton (four) and Morton (four).

Not bad for a guy who exited 2016 having posted a 4.54 ERA while making 162 career appearances (161 starts) for the Braves, Pirates and Phillies. It’s remarkable for a guy who created reason to wonder if he’d get past Double-A, a level he thought he may have been mercifully moved to after three years at the Class A level (two at Low-A and one at High-A).

“Maturity level and confidence, I was lacking all of it,” Morton said. “There was no vision for the big leagues and what you have to do to be the best you can be. The idea of reaching the big leagues seemed so foreign to me.”

Longtime pitching coach Derek Botelho may have saved Morton’s career when he put him in Double-A Mississippi’s bullpen and spent the summer of 2007 getting the young pitcher to focus on his career. The confidence grew as Botelho helped him develop tilt with an above-average fastball that hadn’t previously created much deception.

Morton moved into Mississippi’s rotation by the end of that year, turned some heads during the Arizona Fall League and made his MLB debut for Atlanta in 2008. He was traded to the Pirates the following year and spent seven seasons with Pittsburgh before finding himself with the Astros in 2017.

With the success Morton has experienced over the past six seasons, he has allowed himself to enjoy the final stages of a unique career. He didn’t know if he’d reach the Majors, and there were times he wondered how much longer he might last in the bigs.

But there he was Thursday morning, sharing a hug with Vaughn Grissom, who was just two years old when Morton came to his first Spring Training and had no clue where he’d be 20 years later.