The Braves have reunited with old friend Charlie Morton. They signed him to a major league deal today. He had been designated for assignment by the Tigers but evidently cleared waivers and became a free agent. Atlanta optioned right-hander Jhancarlos Lara and designated righty Carson Ragsdale for assignment as corresponding moves. Manager Brian Snitker previously shared the news with Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and David O’Brien of The Athletic. Bowman suggests it’s possible the club has brought Morton aboard to retire as a Brave. It’s undetermined whether he will pitch for the club in the remainder of the season.
Morton, 41, hasn’t said that he is retiring but it wouldn’t be a shock if that was his plan. He has flirted with the possibility for years now. “It could be this year, next year, but I’m not going to keep playing for a long time,” he said way back in April of 2018. “I can promise you that. I’m not going to keep playing four, five, six, seven more years.”
Of course, that was over seven years ago now. Since then, Morton has seemingly made a conscious choice to not overly commit to anything. He has repeatedly signed a series of short-term deals, apparently content to keep playing as long as he stayed effective.
After a so-so 2024 season in which he posted a 4.19 earned run average, he decided to give it another go in 2025. He signed a one-year, $15MM deal with the Orioles. “I remember walking off the field and just this like sinking feeling in my stomach — it just didn’t feel right,” Morton said shortly after signing with the O’s. “I’m sure a lot of guys toward the end of their careers, they think about retiring, shutting it down, and you really want to walk off the field the last time and feel good about it. And a lot of guys don’t get that opportunity. I just didn’t feel good about it. I felt like I could have done better. I felt like I still had the tools to be a good pitcher in the big leagues.”
Unfortunately, this season has been even more challenging than the last one. He posted a 10.89 ERA through five starts and got moved to the bullpen before the end of April. He posted some decent results working in relief and got his rotation spot back, then performed pretty well in the summer. He had a 3.88 ERA in 11 starts from late May to the trade deadline, which gave him enough value for the Orioles to trade him and some cash to the Tigers for minor league lefty Micah Ashman.
His first four starts with Detroit were fine, as he put up a 3.63 ERA in those, but things took a disastrous turn from there. He didn’t go more than four innings in any of his final four outings as a Tiger. He seemed to completely lose the zone, walking 19.7% of batters faced in those four games with a 12.75 ERA in that span. In his final outing as a Tiger, he didn’t make it out of the second inning and was booed off the field by a frustrated fan base as the club’s recent skid has become disastrous. The Tigers, desperately trying to avoid a situation where they miss the playoffs, cut him loose.
Atlanta doesn’t have any use for Morton in a competitive sense. Their season was a lost cause long ago and they are officially eliminated from making the playoffs this year. Bringing Morton aboard is a sentimental choice, one that allows him to finish the season with a club that he had a lot of success with.
Morton was originally drafted by Atlanta back in 2002 and debuted for them in 2008. From there, he bounced around, spending many years with the Pirates, Astros and Rays. He returned to Atlanta in 2021 and stayed there through 2024. In those four recent seasons with Atlanta, he made at least 30 starts in each one. Overall, he gave the club 686 1/3 innings with a 3.87 ERA.
As mentioned, it’s unclear if Morton is actually retiring or if he will take the mound in the final week of the season. But it seems possible that he is planning on heading towards the sunset. If that’s the case and he wants to climb the hill one last time, perhaps he can engineer a better final act than his most recent appearance as a Tiger.
Ragsdale, 27, was just claimed off waivers from the Orioles a few days ago. He was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett and made one appearance for the Stripers. Since the trade deadline has long passed, he’ll be back on waivers in the coming days.
His minor league track record is still quite small, consisting of just one appearance for the O’s this year wherein he allowed eight earned runs in three innings. His minor league work also hasn’t been great this year, with a 5.22 ERA in 89 2/3 innings, but he was better a year ago. In 2024, he logged 120 2/3 innings on the farm with a 4.18 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate and 11.3% walk rate.
He doesn’t have three years of big league service time nor a previous career outright. That means he does not have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of electing free agency. He also doesn’t have seven years of minor league experience, meaning he shouldn’t be eligible for minor league free agency at season’s end either.
Photos courtesy of Jim Rassol, Dale Zanine, Imagn Images
The Guardians are carrying top outfield prospect Chase DeLauter on their Wild Card series roster against the Tigers, the team announced. Zack Meisel of The Athletic first reported yesterday that the Guardians were considering that possibility. Guardians Prospective reported overnight that DeLauter would indeed be on the roster. Cleveland already had an opening on the 40-man roster, so they didn’t need to make another move to select the former first-rounder’s contract.
If he gets into a game, it’ll be the 23-year-old’s first MLB action. It’s rare but not entirely unheard of for top prospects to get a postseason roster spot before making their regular season major league debut. The Twins went that route with Alex Kirilloff in 2020, while the Royals had Adalberto Mondesi make his first appearance during the 2015 World Series. DeLauter is not in the starting lineup for this afternoon’s Game 1. Cleveland is going with Steven Kwan, Angel Martínez and Johnathan Rodriguez in the outfield against Tarik Skubal.
It’s certainly feasible that DeLauter finds his way into a game, of course, be it in the later innings this afternoon or tomorrow, when Detroit sends righty Jack Flaherty or Casey Mize to the mound. The lefty-swinging DeLauter is on the bench at least in part due to the presence of a southpaw on the mound. DeLauter posted much better numbers versus lefies than righties in a small sample during an injury-shortened 2025 season, but he’s historically been better against righties. Beyond that, left-handed batters have slashed a putrid .214/.235/.269 against Skubal in 2025.
DeLauter, the Guardians’ first round pick out of James Madison University in 2022, opened the season on the shelf after undergoing sports hernia surgery and was sidelined for two months later in the season after suffering a hamate fracture when he was hit by a pitch. That pair of health troubles limited him to just 42 games and 177 plate appearances, but the touted young outfielder lived up to his reputation when on the field, slashing .278/.383/.476 in Triple-A. DeLauter is a career .302/.384/.504 hitter in the minors since being selected 16th overall in 2022.
While DeLauter won’t gain any big league service time for days spent on the postseason roster, his ascension to the 40-man roster and the fact that the organization is entrusting him with a spot on the playoff roster is a clear sign that he’ll be in the mix for an Opening Day roster spot next year
Kwan is locked in as Cleveland’s left fielder, but other two outfield spots are far less certain. DeLauter has more than 300 professional innings in center and over 600 innings in right field. He’ll be an option in either spot, depending on other moves the front office makes over the winter. The Guardians can control DeLauter through at least the 2031 season, and assuming he breaks camp with the club in ’26, he can gain the Guardians a future draft pick depending on award voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.
That’s a matter for another day, though. For the time being, the focus for DeLauter and the organization will be on advancing as deep into the playoffs as possible. Cleveland just wrapped up one of the most stunning late-season comebacks in modern baseball history, erasing a 9.5-game deficit over the final two and a half weeks of the season, usurping the Tigers as division champions in the American League Central.
The Tigers and manager AJ Hinch quietly agreed to a long-term contract extension during the 2025 season, president of baseball operations Scott Harris announced today at his end-of-season press conference (video link). Harris and Hinch did not specify the length of the contract, but Hinch ostensibly is now signed through at least 2027. Harris effused praise for Hinch, calling him one of the best managers in the sport and saying he hopes to continue working with him “as long as I can possibly work with him.”
Hinch, 51, just wrapped up his fifth season as the manager in Detroit. This is already the second time the organization has “proactively” extended him — as Harris phrased it — before the conclusion of his existing contract.
The Tigers have reached the postseason and won a Wild Card series before falling in the ALDS in each of the past two seasons. Hinch’s club has gone 394-416 since he was hired following the 2020 season, though the Tigers spent the first three years of his managerial tenure wrapping up a large-scale rebuilding effort, so it’s hard to ding him for a sub-.500 record. Hinch has spent parts of 12 seasons as a major league manager in Detroit, Houston and Arizona.
With regard to the team’s coaching staff, the Harris/Hinch duo did not specify whether changes are on the horizon. Hinch voiced pride in his staff but noted that there will be an assessment period at all levels within the organization in the days ahead as leadership looks ahead to the 2026 season.
Of course, even if Harris and Hinch fully intend to bring back the same staff, there’s no guarantee that’ll happen. An incredible eight teams are on the hunt for a new manager right now, and it’s common for clubs seeking new skippers to look to the coaching staffs of contending clubs. Even if no Tigers coach is plucked away for a new managerial gig elsewhere, new managers with other teams will also look to contenders’ coaching staffs to fill out their own. If another team is interested in a Tigers assistant pitching coach or assistant hitting coach to take a lead role in their organization, for instance, that could lead to some turnover.
While some changes further down the ladder can’t be ruled out, however, the leaders in the baseball operations department and in the dugout are squarely returning, providing continuity as the Tigers look to capitalize on ace Tarik Skubal’s final season of club control prior to his entrance into the free-agent market next offseason.
There was never any real thought that Hinch’s job would be in jeopardy, even after his team’s collapse in the season’s final few months. The Tigers floundered down the stretch and ultimately ceded the division crown to the Guardians despite holding a 9.5 game lead in the AL Central as deep into the season as Sept. 10. They rallied to topple Cleveland in the Wild Card round, however, before falling in a 15-inning ALDS Game 5 nailbiter against the AL West champion Mariners.
Fans of any of the incredible eight (!!) teams seeking a new skipper might have hoped that Hinch would potentially be available, but all indications since his hiring in Detroit are that he’s firmly entrenched himself as a pillar of the organization. Harris’ comments today reflect that, and Hinch himself spoke of how much he’s embraced the Tigers organization, the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. Said Hinch:
“I’m so happy being in Detroit. I’m so proud to be the manager here. I love working for [Harris]. And this is the second time that I was approached and was asked for more — and it was an immediate ’yes’ for me. When you have an environment that both pushes you and satisfied you, you want to be in it. I was honored. I was thrilled. It was one conversation with my wife, and I went back to Scott with an immediate ’yes,’ and off we went.
…I can’t tell you how proud I am to be the manager of the Tigers. It’s a rewarding place to be. I bought a home here. We live here the majority of the year and we continue to be thrilled to become more and more Michiganders as a family.”
