“Please be joking” “What a legend” - Fans split over Braves re-signing veteran Charlie Morton in surprising late-season move

The Atlanta Braves have signed veteran pitcher Charlie Morton for the remainder of the season, the team announced on Monday. Morton was designated for assignment by the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.

It is a full-circle moment for the 41-year-old pitcher as he started his MLB journey with the Braves in 2008. He also had a four-year second stint with the team from 2021 to 2024, winning the World Series in 2021.

MLB fans were split on the Braves re-signing their former pitcher with six games remaining in the season.

"Pls be joking"

"What a legend."

"Please! He needs to start. He deserves a send off with a standing O."

"This is getting OLD bringing back the same players every time we look around on the cheap ;("

Several fans speculated that Braves were bringing back Morton so he could retire with the team where it all started.

"Why would anyone be upset about this? Dude wants to retire as a Brave, who's he hurting?"

"He's clearly going to retire here is why. Yall are insane."

Incidentally, Morton's last game with the Tigers was during their series against the Braves last week.

Braves manager Brian Snitker revealed having a conversation with Charlie Morton

Braves' decision to bring back Charlie Morton surprised many, including manager Brian Snitker, who had talked to the veteran hurler before their matchup on Saturday.

“We just got him back, so I don’t know what the plan will be,” Snitker said. “I talked to him on Saturday afternoon before batting practice and this wasn’t even on the radar.”

In his last outing against the Braves on Friday, Morton was tagged for six runs in 1 1/3 innings. Detroit manager AJ Hinch had expressed concern over the veteran All-Star's location since joining the team at the trade deadline.

“There was some concern about him being able to locate his pitches, which is the issue with him in his last few outings," Hinch said. "When we started to wonder about his strike-throwing, it became questionable on how we can deploy that."

It will be interesting to see when Morton gets potentially his last assignment from the mound with the Braves set to take on the Washington Nationals and the Pittsburgh Pirates in their remaining games.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash