How Charlie Morton to Braves impacts Sox pitching hunt originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Did the White Sox want Charlie Morton?
According to ESPN's Buster Olney, it didn't really matter.
Morton ended up in Atlanta, signing a one-year, $15 million deal with the Braves on Tuesday.
And with it, the White Sox offseason quest for starting pitching got a little bit more difficult.
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The South Siders are looking to upgrade a rotation that sunk them in October, when the lack of a reliable third option for Game 3 of their best-of-three AL Wild Card Series led to a bullpen game that went awry. Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel were excellent at the top of the starting staff, but the team will need more than two dependable arms to meet their championship expectations.
But the pickings are slim on the free-agent market, at least past Trevor Bauer, the NL Cy Young winner who's been the center of attention for White Sox fans. Bauer is exactly the kind of arm that would push the South Side starting staff to championship-caliber status. But he figures to be a very popular man this winter, and he can only sign with one team.
That team could be the White Sox, who have the financial flexibility, thanks to those relatively affordable long-term contracts for their young core players, to make that kind of a splash in free agency. If it isn't, though, they'll need a backup plan.
And whether it was Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman accepting qualifying offers to stay with their current clubs or Morton going to Atlanta on Tuesday, backup plans are getting harder and harder to find when it comes to free agency.
Even had those three remained on the market, there were legitimate questions to ask about the kind of upgrades they would have been over what the White Sox already have: Dylan Cease, Dane Dunning and Michael Kopech. All three still-developing pitchers have the kind of talent that has the White Sox seeing future top-of-the-rotation arms. But they lack the dependability a team with win-now intentions craves.
Now, though, not even Stroman, Gausman or Morton are available. That leaves the White Sox weighing what they have against free-agent options past Bauer that might not make anyone jump out of their chair with excitement: Masahiro Tanaka, Jake Odorizzi, José Quintana, James Paxton, Taijuan Walker, J.A. Happ.
More exciting could be the possibilities of the trade market, where All-Star types like Blake Snell, Sonny Gray and Lance Lynn are reportedly available for the right price. The White Sox don't need to be in prospect-hoarding mode anymore, not after leaping into contention mode during the 2020 season. But it can sometimes be even trickier to build a return package than to simply offer dollars to a free agent.
Morton might never have even considered anything past the Rays and Braves. The White Sox might have never factored into the equation. The list of pitchers worth pursuing has shrunk, nonetheless.
Though Bauer remains the big fish in the pond, it'd be foolish to deem backup plans unnecessary. And with every pitcher who finds a new team, the White Sox are seemingly faced with a harder time crafting a backup plan that meets their needs.
