Charles Alfred Morton IV is a well-known professional baseball pitcher who currently plays for the Houston Astros. Simply known as Charlie Morton, he was drafted 95th overall in the third round of the 2002 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves with whom he began his professional career in the minor league before gaining promotion with them to the major league in 2008. Before signing on with the Astros, Charlie pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Charlie Morton’s Bio, Age
Morton was born in Flemington, New Jersey on the 12th of November 1983 to Jeanne and Chip Morton. His father was a former Penn State basketball player who later worked as an accountant. His grandfather also played baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics farm system in his active years.
Charlie was raised in Trumbull, Connecticut, where he began playing in the small leagues with future infielder Jamie D’Antona and pitcher Craig Breslow. Growing up, Charlie Morton had the privilege of attending ballgames at Yankee Stadium and idolized Roger Clemens and Derek Jeter.
As a student of Joel Barlow High School, Redding, Connecticut, Morton pitched for the school’s baseball team and after graduating in 2002, he chose to pursue a career in baseball.
MLB Career
Charlie was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 3rd round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft and he began his pro career with the GCL Braves that same year. The next year, he played with the Danville Braves and would spend his next two seasons (2004 and 2005) with the Rome Braves.
In 2006, he pitched for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and for the Mississippi Braves in 2007. Later that year, he was added to the 40-man roster by the Braves and in June 2008, Morton made his league debut in a game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In the game, he allowed three runs in six innings to earn his first Major League win.
In 2009, he was traded to Pittsburgh Pirates alongside Jeff Locke and Gorkys Henandez in exchange for Nate McLouth. In that same month, Morton made his debut for Pirates in a game against his former side, the Atlanta Braves. In July, he pitched six innings of one-hit ball in a game against the Florida Marlins to record his first game win. Against the Chicago Cubs in September, Charlie Morton pitched a complete game with four-hitter and eight strikeouts.
He ended his 2009 season with eighteen starts, five wins, nine losses and a record of 4.55 ERA, ninety-seven innings pitched and sixty-two strikeouts, forty walks, seven home runs, five hit batsmen, 1.46 WHIP, and .276 average against. Morton struggled throughout the 2015 Spring Training due to an inflammation in his recently surgically repaired hips and had to be placed on a fifteen-day disabled list. In December of the same year, the Pirates traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for David Whitehead after spending six seasons with the franchise.
His stay with the Phillies was short lived as he suffered a hamstring injury during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers in April 2016 and had to be placed on the disabled list the next day and would subsequently miss the rest of the 2016 season as a result of a torn hamstring.
In November 2016, Morton signed a three-year contract with the Houston Astros, worth $14 million. During the 2017 regular season, he started twenty-five games with a 14–7 record with a 3.62 ERA. He also pitched 146 2⁄3 innings with one hundred and sixty-three strikeouts. During the October game that sent the Astros to the World Series, Charlie pitched 5 shutout innings with 5 strikeouts.
At the World Series, he started Game 4 pitching over 6.1 innings and earned one run on three hits and seven strikeouts in a game that eventually ended in a loss. He reached a career apex during Game 7 when he pitched the last four innings which were instrumental in the team’s first ever World Series win. He finished the 2018 regular season with a 15-3 win-loss record, 3.13 ERA, and two hundred and one strikeouts.
Wife
The Astros pitcher has been married to wife, Cindy Morton since 2012. Before they tied the knots, the couple dated for five years. They welcomed their first child together, a baby boy in 2015. They have since had three more children, the latest addition to the family, a baby girl who arrived in September 2018.
Height And Body Measurements
Marton stands at the height of 6 ft 4 in (1.95 m), weighing 236 pounds (107 kg). Information about his other body measurements has not been confirmed at the moment.
