AP: Charlie Morton, Tampa Bay Rays agree on $30M, 2-year deal

LAS VEGAS – The Tampa Bay Rays are perfectly comfortable putting relief pitchers on the mound to begin games. But the chance to add an All-Star to their patchwork rotation, that was too good to pass up.

Coming off a career-high 30 starts, Charlie Morton reached a $30 million, two-year contract with the Rays, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been officially announced.

The 35-year-old Morton was a first-time All-Star last season when he went 15-3 with a 3.13 ERA for Houston.

Morton helped the Astros win their first championship in 2017. He started and won Game 7 of the A.L. Championship Series against the Yankees, then was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series against the Dodgers with four innings of relief.

“He’s a good pitcher,” Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “You never like to have good pitching come into the division, prefer they go somewhere else.”

Morton’s success with the Astros came after a career that had been beset by injuries and inconsistency. He’d undergone Tommy John surgery and was just 46-71 with Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for going to Houston.

The right-hander joins a Rays staff led by A.L. Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

The Tampa Bay rotation was wrecked by injuries this year, and the team often used relief pitchers as starters in their “opener” strategy on the way to 90 wins.

The Rays’ approach became a trend in baseball, especially when teams saw how well it worked. Tampa Bay went 46-38 with traditional starters and was 44-34 when using relievers at the start.

Manager Kevin Cash said earlier this week at the winter meetings that the Rays will employ the strategy again this season.

“I think right now we’re discussing internally whether we do it two times through the rotation or three times through the rotation,” Cash said Monday. “But the nice thing is we’ve got all that information last year and we have a bunch of candidates that we can fill in as a traditional starter if need be.”

Two days later, the math became a little easier with Morton.