Houston Astros: Three thoughts on Charlie Morton’s evolving MLB legacy

Charlie Morton returned to the H for the first time this season. Here are three thoughts on his evolving legacy and how the Houston Astros helped shape it.

The Houston Astros faced off against a former teammate in Charlie Morton, who left a lasting legacy in Houston. No matter what he does in his career from here on out, it will never be as significant as what he provided to the Houston Astros in their historic 2017 World Series championship season.

I must admit to writing this one day later because I was hoping that Morton would fall victim to us last night. Fortunately and unfortunately, that was the case as the Houston Astros did a number on their former teammate. It was a bittersweet day. We scored runs, but we also scored runs off a guy that was an instrumental part of our franchise history.

With his start out of the way, I figured it was time to write down a tribute to him. This is the third tribute I’ve written about a former Astro player who was a key contributor for the 2017 squad. I talked about why Marwin Gonzalez’s World Series homer in Game 2 was the best in Houston Astros history. I gave out my top ten Dallas Keuchel moments. But with Charlie, you can’t seem to find a collection of moments he’s had in his Houston Astros career.

Sure, he was an All-Star and sure he was a big part of our playoff run. But what Morton was to the

Houston Astros is the defined role of being the unsung hero. On a team with stars like Jose Altuve, Justin Verlander, George Springer, Carlos Correa, and Alex Bregman along with a future Hall of Famer in Carlos Beltran and key contributors like Josh Reddick, Marwin Gonzalez, Dallas Keuchel, and Yuli Gurriel, Morton was the ultimate unsung hero.

Over the past few seasons, the Houston Astros have had reputations of turning around careers that are in limbo or at a crossroads. It’s happened to Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander to name a few guys. In other words, where some places athletes go to have their careers die, Houston is one place athletes go to have their careers resurrected. Because of this, Morton is now having himself a Cy-Young caliber season. He’s been mentioned in the top three best AL pitchers along with Verlander and Cole.

But make no mistake, and I say this not to discredit what he’s doing with Tampa Bay, which is a playoff contender now, or whatever he did in the past, nothing will overtake what he did in 2017.