Rays' Morton 'not going to play' past 2020 if performance or health declines
Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Charlie Morton might hang up his cleats after the 2020 season.
Morton, 36, is coming off a third-place finish in AL Cy Young voting after the best campaign of his career, and he could hit free agency next offseason. But the two-time All-Star acknowledged Tuesday that performance and health will determine his future on the mound.
"I don’t know,'' Morton said when asked if next season could be his last in the majors, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. "If I throw really well and I feel really good, it's going to be a tough decision. But if either one of those things happen, where I'm not pitching really well, or I'm not healthy, then, yeah, I'm not going to play.''
Morton admitted that finances will factor into his decision. The starting pitcher has a team option that will reportedly pay him $15 million if he spends less than 30 days on the injured list over the course of the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He didn't lose any time to injury in 2019.
The 12-year veteran also said his family will play an important role.
"It's interesting because a lot of it is about my relationship with my kids,'' Morton said. "It's about my relationship with my wife and trying to make a marriage work while you're on the road for three-four months' worth of time out of the year while she's at home taking care of four kids who are growing up without you around and wondering where you are.
"It's like, do you have to do that? No, I don't have to anymore. I don't. That's the reality of it. So it's like why would I feel the pressure of that? I don’t feel the pressure of doing that."
Morton posted a 3.05 ERA with an 11.1 K/9 rate in 33 starts for the Rays in 2019.