Carl Morton
Carl Wendle Morton (January 18, 1944 – April 12, 1983) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher who played eight seasons for the Montreal Expos and the Atlanta Braves. He won the National League Rookie of the Year in 1970.
Morton was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in West Tulsa, Oklahoma. He played baseball at Webster High School and later attended the University of Oklahoma as an outfielder. He began his pro career as an outfielder in the Braves organization and later became a pitcher. The Montreal Expos selected him in the 1968 expansion draft.
Morton made his MLB debut on April 11, 1969, for the Expos. In his first start, he pitched nine scoreless innings, but Montreal lost 1–0 in 12 innings. He finished 1969 with a 0–3 record and a 4.60 ERA.
His breakout came in 1970, when he went 18–11 with a 3.60 ERA in 43 games. He threw 10 complete games and four shutouts in 284.2 innings, with 154 strikeouts. He won the NL Rookie of the Year and finished 9th in Cy Young voting and 27th in MVP voting. He also won the Sporting News Rookie of the Year, the first Expos player to receive the award.
Morton’s numbers dipped over the next two seasons in Montreal, and he was traded to the Atlanta Braves for Pat Jarvis on February 28, 1973.
With the Braves, Morton had several strong seasons. In 1973 he went 15–10 with a 3.41 ERA in 256.1 innings, with 112 strikeouts. In 1974 he was 16–12 with a 3.15 ERA in 274.2 innings, and in 1975 he went 17–16 with a 3.50 ERA in 277.2 innings. He finished his Braves career in 1976 at 4–9 with a 4.17 ERA in 26 games. His final MLB appearance was August 21, 1976; in that game he pitched 7⅓ innings and drove in three runs as a batter in a 6–2 Braves win.
Morton was part of a five-player trade that sent him, Ken Henderson, Dave May, Roger Moret, Adrian Devine and $200,000 from the Braves to the Texas Rangers for Jeff Burroughs on December 9, 1976. He was released by the Rangers on April 1, 1977, and later had brief stints with the Phillies and Pirates in the minor leagues.
As a hitter, Morton batted .156 with seven home runs and 42 RBIs in his career, including a career-high three home runs and 15 RBIs in 1973 with the Braves. Defensively, he was solid, with a .975 fielding percentage.
Morton finished his professional career in the minor leagues, playing in the Rangers, Phillies and Pirates systems until 1978. He died on April 12, 1983, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, of a heart attack after jogging. He was survived by his wife Karen, a son and a stepdaughter.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:27 (CET).