For much of the season, it felt as if the decision to let Charlie Morton walk was clearly the right move for the Atlanta Braves to have made. I mean, Morton was pitching so poorly after signing his one-year, $15 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles to the point where they had to have been seriously considering DFA’ing him. Virtually everyone who has taken the ball for the Orioles has struggled this season, but Morton’s struggles were above everyone else’s. Well, lately, the script has flipped, and now, the Braves might actually miss him.

Yes, you read that right. In his first nine appearances, Morton had an ERA over 9.00, allowing more earned runs than innings pitched. In his seven appearances since, Morton has a sub-2.50 ERA and he was never better than he was on Friday.

Facing a Los Angeles Angels team that’s played pretty well of late, Morton pitched five scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out 10 batters. He was only pulled after five frames because of a rain delay. Morton pitching this well can’t feel good for the Braves when Bryce Elder pitched as poorly as he did on Friday.

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Against all odds, the Braves might actually miss Charlie Morton

Facing the now 13-56 Colorado Rockies, Elder allowed four runs on seven hits while issuing three walks in just 3.1 innings of work. He allowed a ridiculous number of base runners, especially when considering the opponent. Yes, the Braves were able to win the game, and Elder has had a mini-resurgence of his own this season, but how can any Braves fan feel great about that start from him?

Morton’s resurgence began on May 10 when he threw two scoreless innings of relief against the Angels. Since that date, five Braves pitchers have thrown at least 20 innings. Only one of those five, Chris Sale, has a better ERA than Morton’s 2.45. Spencer Schwellenbach isn’t far behind at 2.76, and guys like Elder and Grant Holmes have sub-4.00 ERAs, but Morton has been as good as it gets for a month now.

To be completely honest, even with Morton pitching like this, not much would change for the Braves, considering the state of their lineup and bullpen. Still, while they look for consistency from Elder, Braves fans can’t help but wonder what their rotation would look like with Morton pitching as well as he has for a while now.