Atlanta Braves 2023 season review: Charlie Morton's possible swan song

The 2023 Atlanta Braves had one of the most exciting offenses Major League Baseball has ever seen. Pitching was often viewed as the one flaw of this team. Let’s take a look at how Charlie Morton’s season went. 

Charlie Morton caught a lot of hate in 2023 for inconsistency. His 14-12 record in 2023 was about on par for his performance, and for a starting pitcher is not fantastic but it is not terrible. Morton’s record also looks worse just because of the amount of decisions he received this past season.

Morton started a total of 30 games for the Braves in 2023 and 26 of the 30 starts resulting in a decision which is abnormally high.

Over 163.1 innings pitched, Morton surrendered 66 earned runs, struck out 183 and walked 83. This averaged out to a 3.64 ERA, 3.87 FIP, and a WHIP of 1.43. A lot of Morton’s struggles this past season had to do with control issues. Many of the big innings that teams posted against Morton began from walks. 

Outside of command issues at times, Charlie Morton honestly lived up to expectations. The almost 40 year old just finished his 16th season in the big leagues. The two-time all-star and almost Cy Young winner in 2019 (finished 3rd in voting) is at the tail end of his career. Unfortunately his better days are behind him but he still had enough left in the tank to help the Braves in 2023. 

While some may feel Morton was inconsistent, he was consistently on the mound every five days until the playoffs came around. Being a veteran presence in the Braves starting rotation while still performing well enough to win half of his decisions should be considered a successful season for Charlie Morton. 

Now we wait and see if Morton returns to the Braves in 2024 or retires after 16 seasons of major league pitching.