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Charlie Morton 2020 Player Outlook: Should Continue To Get Better With Age
5 years agoTampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Charlie Morton continued his resurgent career in 2019, going 16-6 with a 3.05 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and a 30.4% strikeout rate over 194 ⅔ innings pitched. The 36-year-old veteran managed to post career bests in all of the aforementioned categories in his 11th full season. Though he lost some velocity on his fastballs (94.7 MPH on fastball, 93.9 MPH on sinker compared to 96.1 MPH, 95.1 MPH in 2018), Morton was able to effectively alter his pitching style by relying primarily on his curveball (37.3% usage). This approach was clearly effective; Morton got a ton of spin on the pitch (93rd percentile in baseball), which led to a 16.9% swinging-strike rate and a .151 batting average against. Overall, the only thing to potentially be concerned about is regression due to aging, as there are no damning underlying metrics. Morton is currently being taken at about pick 60 overall, making him the 19th pitcher off the board. Given his unusual upward trajectory as he has aged, pick 60 seems like good value for Morton, with a reasonable range going as high as pick 50.
