Rays agree to two-year deal with right-hander Morton

The Tampa Bay Rays are perfectly comfortable putting relief pitchers on the mound to begin games. But the chance to add an all-star to their patchwork rotation, that was too good to pass up.

Coming off a career-high 30 starts, Charlie Morton reached a $30 million, two-year contract with the Rays, a person familiar with the agreement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been officially announced.

The 35-year-old Morton was a firsttime all-star last season when he went 15-3 with a 3.13 ERA for Houston.

Morton helped the Astros win their first championship in 2017. He started and won Game 7 of the AL Championship Series against the Yankees, then was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series against the Dodgers with four innings of relief.

“He’s a good pitcher,” Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “You never like to have good pitching come into the division, prefer they go somewhere else.”

Morton’s success with the Astros came after a career that had been beset by injuries and inconsistency. He’d undergone Tommy John surgery and was just 46-71 with Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia for going to Houston.

The right-hander joins a Rays staff led by AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

Trade of Tanners: Tanner Roark figured he would be pitching in Washington’s star-studded rotation next year alongside Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and newcomer Patrick Corbin.

Instead, he found himself part of the majors’ first Tanner-for-Tanner trade, headed to the rebuilding Reds. Cincinnati acquired him for fellow right-hander Tanner Rainey on Wednesday during the winter meetings.

“I felt like we would have a pretty good staff over there in D.C. but they thought otherwise and I don’t know what their plans are,” Roark said. “I’m just grateful to be a National. It was good times over there.”

As of now, Roark could lead a young Reds rotation – though president of baseball operations Dick Williams made it clear his last-place club is hardly done dealing. Righty starter Matt Harvey came to Cincinnati from the Mets last May.

The 32-year-old Roark led the National League in losses last season, going 9-15 with a 4.34 ERA.