MLB Winter Meetings: Tampa Bay Rays Make Charlie Morton First Priority

We are a few days into the 2019 MLB Winter Meetings. As of this writing, none of the major players have been moved. However, the Tampa Bay Rays were one of the first teams to make a deal. Early Wednesday afternoon, Ken Rosenthal ended up confirming that the Rays had signed Charlie Morton. It is also been reported that the deal is a two-year deal that is worth $30 million.

This move came as a surprise to how much they paid Morton. Other than that, this was a great move by the Rays. Since they moved Chris Archer last year, the team didn’t have an ace. While Kevin Cash and company was able to work around it, there was no way they could do what they did for a full season. In two seasons with the Houston Astros, Charlie Morton had impressive numbers.

In 55 games that he started, he would end up having a 29-10 record with a 6.74 ERA. The 6.74 ERA averages to 3.37, which is good. In addition, he brings a winning attitude towards a team that has not won a World Series. The closest that the Rays ever got to a World Series was when they made it to the 2008 World Series. They ended up losing that series to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 1.

I suspect the other reason why the Rays signed Morton to the deal that they did was to combat the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. It is clear that the American League East will come down to those two teams again. With the Rays signing Morton, they may have an answer to slowing down the Yankees and Red Sox. Those two teams are reliant a lot on hitting and Morton does have good numbers against them.

This is only the first of many signings at the 2019 Winter Meetings. Stay locked into Caveman Radio Show as we will have the latest from Las Vegas.

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