CLEARWATER, Fla. — Charlie Morton woke up Tuesday to the news that Pedro Alvarez and the Baltimore Orioles reportedly had agreed to a one-year, $5.75 million deal to end a free agency that lingered into spring training. Morton wondered what had taken so long.
Recently, Morton, 32, has let himself reminisce about the seven seasons he played for the Pirates — from 99 losses in 2009 to 98 wins in 2015 — before they traded thisright-hander to the Philadelphia Phillies in December to save money.
OnMorton’s hourlong commute between his home in Bradenton, Fla., and Bright House Field in Clearwater, home of the Phillies camp, he has time to think back to how the Pirates went from, in his words, “really bad to really good,” and the men who made it happen.