In a little bit of a surprising move, the Pirates traded Charlie Morton to the Phillies this morning for minor league pitcher David Whitehead. On some fronts, this move reminds me a bit of the Travis Snider trade in that Morton is clearly a player with some utility to the Pirates in 2016 and Whitehead is a minor leaguer that’s a long ways away from the big leagues, so it’s hard to see the utility in this particular trade for the Pirates in the immediate futures, besides being rid of Morton’s salary. Of course, Morton has his own issues with consistency and health; the Pirates are trading a starter from their rotation for a minor leaguer a long ways from the big leagues here, but they’re trading one that almost every Pirate fan started the winter hoping that they’d be able to upgrade on before the season starts.
That being said, I find it hard to think that this move will exist in a vacuum. Dealing Morton brings the Pirates back down to four starters, (Cole, Liriano, Niese, Locke) and pitching, especially free agent pitching, has been expensive this winter. They’re still looking for a left-handed bat, preferably at first base. If I thought this was going to be the last move of the Pirates’ off-season, it’d be a disappointing trade, but I’d be shocked if this is it for the Bucs. If the Pirates are going to make a move to free salary up, Morton makes the most sense, as there’s a decent chance they were going to spend March looking to dump him off on someone else anyway. As I said with the Niese trade, if Whitehead is someone that the Pirates like, it makes all the sense in the world to do this now and get someone they want in the system, rather than be forced to make a move in March as opposed to eating Morton’s salary and letting him go. Certainly there was more to Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley than we guessed last winter.
Anyway, I’m a little sad to see Morton go. The transformation of him from meatball throwing fastball pitcher in 2010 to the crazy sinker-heavy pitcher we know now was fascinating to watch, and I learned a lot about pitchers from watching him. It’s easy to see how a little more luck in the health department (Morton has had Tommy John surgery and torn labrums in both hips since 2012) would make his career look differently; the talent is there, but it’s hard to be consistent when you can’t throw more than 150 innings a season. Maybe he’ll have more luck in Philadelphia; I certainly wish him the best.
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