It’s a 40-minute drive from Charlie Morton’s residence in Bradenton, Florida, to the Atlanta Braves training camp in North Port. Each day during his commute for spring training, the 40-year-old father of four undergoes a mental shift, transitioning from husband and dad to a major-league pitcher.
As Morton heads back home at the end of the day, driving on I-75 North to Cindy and the kids, he tries to switch back to daddy mode. However, he admits that sometimes he’s not entirely successful.
“I’ve definitely noticed that. I’ve definitely noticed the things about me, those thoughts and feelings I have when I’m the ballplayer. And then when I go home, it’s like … I don’t know, but I think you just start to act differently,” Morton said. “Not in a bad way. I’m not strutting around the house like a peacock. But I just feel it. And I think it’s that feeling of the weight of it, of baseball. Like, making sure that you’re still good.”
It’s important to note that Morton wasn’t complaining or seeking sympathy. He is well aware that he is paid $20 million to pitch, something he still loves doing, at an age when most of his peers have retired. He is 19 years older than the top starting-pitcher prospects in Braves camp, AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep, and to Morton, it feels more like 25 years because those players and some others in camp look about 15 to him.
Morton is known for being candid and introspective. When asked about something serious, he answers thoughtfully rather than resorting to clichés. He discussed the transformation he feels he must undergo each day during spring training, especially since he’s one of the few major-league players close enough to live at home during this time.
Morton believes this mental preparation on the way to the ballpark is crucial for both himself and his team. He can’t afford to give anything less than his best or be distracted. Otherwise, he would have declined when the Braves exercised the $20 million option on his contract.
“It’s knowing that people care, and knowing that you have to succeed for your teammates and your organization and the city, the fans,” Morton said. “I think it becomes like this force that’s, like, pushing down on you, and you have to derive something inside of you that pushes against it. And I think that friction with the game and the failure and successes and all of that, I think that’s kind of what keeps you in motion.”
Braves officials appreciate having Morton around their young players. While he may not speak loudly or say much, when Morton speaks, everyone listens. He is universally respected among teammates, and he willingly shares everything he has learned throughout his career.
“He’s one of the most genuine people you can ever meet,” Braves pitcher Max Fried said. “He works hard. He’s obviously an amazing person. You can go to him in any situation. But to see him still be as determined and dedicated and as talented as he is, at 40 now — he’s only been getting better. He had an unbelievable season last year. I know it ended not the way he wanted, but you can tell that there’s a determination to kind of right that.”
Spencer Strider, who led the majors in strikeouts last year in his first full season, has leaned heavily on Morton.
“He’s just one of the best guys I’ve ever met,” Strider said. “I mean, just a phenomenal person. Very considerate. And you talk about somebody whose strengths are their strengths. There’s nobody like Charlie. Just what he provides is really invaluable. And the kind of a guy who goes about things quietly, somebody you learn from observing rather than anything else.”
Of course, the Braves aren’t paying him $20 million because he’s a great guy. They exercised his option because Morton remains a high-level pitcher. He’s 37-24 with a 3.77 ERA in 94 starts over the past three seasons with the Braves, with 604 strikeouts in 521 innings.
“I always say there’s only so much of the pie to go around, so you’re just trying to make sure that financially it can work to have a good team,” said Alex Anthopoulos, Braves general manager and president of baseball operations. “Having Charlie Morton on this team, there was no doubt about it.”
Last season Morton had a 3.32 ERA through his first start in September, then gave up 10 runs in 10 2/3 innings over his next two before leaving his final start after one inning with a finger-ligament injury that sidelined Morton for the National League Division Series, which the Braves lost.
“Charlie had a great year,” Anthopoulos said. “I know he hit the IL right at the end, but he’s been able to post for us in all three years. And, I mean, he had an ERA in the mid-3s. There were some things that I think are easy things he can continue to get better at. But this stuff is still very good. … His curveball is still elite, the fastball’s still elite. And we think he’s poised to have another great year again.”
Morton first noticed that mental dynamic he referenced — the friction, or push and pull, as he describes it — more than a decade ago, when he was coming back from Tommy John surgery in 2013. He tore up his elbow when he was less than a year removed from his first good season in the majors in 2011 when he had a 3.83 ERA in 29 starts for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“It was a year-long rehab,” Morton said. “I was going to make my first (post-surgery) major-league start, I think, like, 364 days or something from surgery. And immediately I pulled up to the park and it’s like, you put up or shut up. Sure, you’ve been nice and comfortable (while rehabbing). You go to the gym, you throw, you do all these things. I picked up a couple of hobbies (during rehab). And we had a kid.
“But sure as anything, I showed up for that start and it was like, this is it, you’re back on the stage. And I think that’s that feeling. If you don’t have that feeling, it’s danger zone, because that’s what really keeps you going, that push and pull.”
Morton said he still gets that feeling when he gets to Braves camp in the morning and certainly when he enters the clubhouse, where he is surrounded by some players barely half his age. There are also many established players, including several stars and one unmitigated superstar, 26-year-old reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr.
If he were to stroll in feeling like dad, like some graybeard struggling to keep up with the youngsters, Morton wouldn’t be ready to compete at a high level, which he has continued to do even at such a relatively advanced age. He needs that tension, the weight of those expectations, that put-up-or-shut-up feeling.
“Yeah, if I walked in this room and I didn’t feel anything, that’d be a bad spot,” Morton said as he prepares for his 22nd season of pro ball and 16th in the majors.
He’s played for World Series championship teams with Houston and Atlanta, but it’s not the pursuit of another ring that’s the most attractive aspect of continuing to pitch, nor is it the money, though that’s certainly nice. What he loves most is the camaraderie of the clubhouse, particularly this clubhouse.
Morton said he has never been around a group that gets along so well, players whose company he enjoys as much, as these Braves during the past couple of seasons.
“It’s interesting because I feel like we were just in this room,” Morton said, describing a passing-of-time element that most older people will understand.
I mentioned to him the idea that for someone who’s 21, a six-month season seems a lot longer than someone who’s 39, or the way a year in elementary school seemed like a long time as a kid, but a blip in time for that kid’s parents.
“I don’t know if it’s the familiarity, if it’s the guys, the building, or it’s just getting older and I think time does kind of speed up,” he said. “It seems like we were just here, and it was a year ago. Yeah. It’s weird. But I don’t know. It probably has more to do with the personality of the guys because they’re all so solid. It’s like coming home.”
Which, when you think about it, might make his situation one of the most rewarding of any player at any spring training — he feels like he’s coming home when he gets to the ballpark, and again when he drives back to his family in Bradenton at the end of the day.
Morton glanced around the clubhouse at the lockers of players including Fried, Strider and Chris Sale to his right, and Sean Murphy, Travis d’Arnaud, Matt Olson, Michael Harris II, Orlando Arcia, and Ozzie Albies, among others, to his left and across the way. I said something about them being the kind of guys you want to hang out with, and Morton nodded.
“Look around,” he said. “It’s like, ridiculous. It really is ridiculous.”
Like other Braves, Morton was miserable after their 101-win season in 2022 and 104-win season in 2023 each ended with a four-game NLDS loss to the rival Philadelphia Phillies. He was especially frustrated last October that he missed that series because of an injury to the index finger of his right hand. That finger is critical to him throwing a curveball that has more break and that spins at higher rates than all but a couple of other pitchers in the majors can muster, and it wasn’t a certainty that Morton would’ve been healed enough to pitch in the NLCS if the Braves had advanced.
But it’s healed now, and Morton is again with a group of players and coaches who relish having him back.
“Charlie’s one of my favorite people to catch,” Murphy said
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