DETROIT, Mich. – It’s been a long ride for Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Charlie Morton, from riding the buses in the minor leagues for six seasons before getting a taste of the Major Leagues, to winning two World Series championships.
Along the way, he’s gone up to the Majors and back down to the minors no fewer than 12 times, rehab assignments included, been a free agent four times and been traded three times, most recently this past July 31 when he came to Detroit from the Baltimore Orioles at the trade deadline. In Detroit, Morton was reunited with his former manager, A.J. Hinch, with whom he won the World Series with the Houston Astros in 2017.
“I wish things had gone better in Baltimore for me. I wish we had done better as a team. Especially for that early part of the year, that first month, a month and a half, that’s a moment in my career that you don’t want to happen. But it’s part of it. It’s part of still growing, still learning, even though I’m here in my 20-something years in professional baseball,” Morton, 41, told to World Baseball Network before the Tigers’ game against the New York Mets at Comerica Park on September 2.
Interview with Tigers SP Charlie Morton on the ups and downs of his career.
He also talked about what makes Juan Soto, Tarik Skubal, and Gerrit Cole elite.
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— World Baseball Network (@WorldBaseball_) September 3, 2025
His first 10 starts with the Orioles saw his ERA balloon to 8.82, but since then, he has pitched 96 1/3 innings with a 4.41 ERA. On the season, Morton has pitched 132 1/3 innings with 140 strikeouts and an ERA of 5.51.
Morton is no stranger to adversity, and he’s pretty much had everything thrown his way.
“To come here with A.J., to be familiar and close with him, to know what kind of man he is, what kind of manager he is, and how he’s handled me ever since I met him. So all in all, I’m just really thankful,” Morton added.
Morton, a righty, was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2002 in the third round of the MLB draft out of Joe Barlow High School in Redding, Conn. He made his Major League Baseball debut in 2008. He has racked up 2,187 strikeouts in the regular season, with 2,258 innings, and an ERA of 4.10 in 18 seasons.
“When I first got called up, I was just trying to last in MLB for a week at a time, just trying to survive each start and not get sent back down,” Morton said. “I just wanted to try and last for a month, and it was tough because I was in the minor leagues for six years and back and forth between MLB for three seasons after that.”
Morton was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 2009 season, and he made his debut with them in 2010. In 2011, things finally clicked for Morton, and he made 29 MLB starts for the Pirates, 11 more than his previous career high two years earlier.
Following the 2015 season, he was traded again, across Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia Phillies. His Phillies tenure was short-lived due to a hamstring injury in April 2016 that limited him to just four games, and he elected free agency that November.
He then signed a two-year deal with the Houston Astros, and this stint was one of the most successful of his career, winning a World Series in 2017 and being named an All-Star for the first time in his career in 2018.
“Being on those Astros teams in 2017 and 2018 was really special to me, a really special part of my career. But I think it’s the people that make it special,” Morton said.
After his time with the Astros, he signed with the Tampa Rays and was an All-Star in 2019, then helped them to the World Series in 2020, which they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
A free agent again following the Covid-19 Pandemic shortened season, Morton returned to Atlanta in 2021, and pitched there for four more seasons, winning his second World Series championship in his first season by beating his former team, the Astros.
