It's been just one day since MLB free agency opened up and the Atlanta Braves had a whirlwind of a first 24 hours. One of the biggest conversations amongst Braves fans right now is the reactions to the decision to decline veteran catcher Travis d'Arnaud's $8 million option for 2025.
Alex Anthopoulos has cleared up a ton of money with the player options declined, Soler trade, and reworking of Aaron Bummer and Reynaldo Lopez's contracts. The speculation now is that Anthopoulos is working on a big move with all of the money he has shed over the past few days.
Plenty of people have their ideas on how Anthopoulos should spend money this offseason, but here we will discuss one area where he needs to AVOID spending these funds.
Braves need to move on from Charlie Morton
All of last season it was assumed that veteran RHP Charlie Morton was pitching in his final big league season. However, recently MLB.com's own Mark Bowman reported that Morton could be leaning towards pitching again in 2025.
Morton has produced an amazing big league career, and his ability to still churn out quality seasons throughout the back half of his career is amongst the best we've seen in quite some time. However, father time comes for everyone and ground Chuck will enter 2025 at the age of 41 years-old.
Charlie Morton becomes the 7th active pitcher to reach 2,000 career strikeouts! 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/y7fkH4An94
— MLB (@MLB) August 14, 2024
Morton has earned $20 million each of the past two seasons with the Braves, and he's simply not worth that price tag anymore. However, bringing Morton back on a cheaper one-year deal in the $8-13 million range isn't the worst idea.
With that said, Anthopoulos should be weary to even fork out that much for Morton. The veteran pitcher has some clear warning signs that he may be nearing a steep decline in the near future. Charlie can still spin a curveball really well, but opposing hitters had an expected slugging percentage (xSLG) of at least .495 against each of his other four pitches.
On top of that Morton had a 4.86 FIP, and allowed a .279/.357/.469 slash line in the second half of last season. I love Charlie Morton and everything he has done in a Braves uniform. Over the past three seasons Morton has lived up to his price tag without a doubt. However, if Morton wants to give it one more run before he hangs up the cleats I think it's best for Anthopoulos to steer clear in 2025 unless the he's pitching on a much smaller salary.