{"id":1819,"date":"2025-04-30T20:52:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/1819\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T20:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T20:52:09","slug":"orioles-move-charlie-morton-to-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/1819\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Move Charlie Morton To Bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orioles used veteran starter out of the bullpen last night when Kyle Gibson<\/a>\u2019s first start of the year was shorter than hoped, and it seems that\u2019ll be the continued plan for Morton \u2014 at least in the short term. Manager Brandon Hyde announced today that Morton will pitch in relief for the time being (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner<\/a>). The O\u2019s haven\u2019t closed the door on the 41-year-old returning to a starting role, but they\u2019re hoping a change in role can help get him back on track.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a disappointing outcome for both the team and for Morton personally. The 18-year big league veteran signed with the O\u2019s on a one-year, $15MM contract over the winter. Morton was one of several one-year acquisitions for the Orioles\u2019 rotation, joining Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a> and Gibson in that regard. Baltimore\u2019s baseball operations staff hoped that the infusion of aging veterans, paired with steps forward from young pitchers like Grayson Rodriguez<\/a> and Cade Povich<\/a>, would help them overcome the loss of ace Corbin Burnes<\/a>, who signed with the D-backs in free agency.<\/p>\n

Virtually nothing has gone right for the Orioles\u2019 staff in 2025, however. Morton is hardly alone in terms of struggles, but his have been the most glaring. He\u2019s appeared in seven games \u2014 five starts, one bulk appearance following an opener, and last night\u2019s mop-up work \u2014 and been tattooed for a 9.45 ERA in 26 2\/3 frames. His 15.2% walk rate is a career-worst, while his 18.8% strikeout rate is his lowest since 2015. Morton\u2019s typically strong ground-ball rate has evaporated; he\u2019s sitting on a career-low 36.7% mark and has averaged a career-worst 2.03 homers per nine innings pitched. He\u2019s also displayed career-worst marks in average exit velocity (91.6 mph), opponents\u2019 barrel rate (11.1%) and hard-hit rate (48.9%).<\/p>\n

The rest of Baltimore\u2019s rotation hasn\u2019t been quite as bad, but it\u2019s still been a mess overall. Dean Kremer<\/a> has been torched for a 7.04 ERA while working with career-worst strikeout and swinging-strike rates. Povich was terrific his last time out but still has an ERA of 5.04. Sugano boasts a sharp 3.00 ERA, but it\u2019s hard to see that continuing when he has the fourth-lowest strikeout rate among all qualified big league pitchers.<\/p>\n

Injuries have hit Baltimore\u2019s staff hard. Zach Eflin<\/a> has been out since mid-April due to a lat strain. Rodriguez initially hit the IL with elbow inflammation but has since been diagnosed with a lat strain of his own; he was recently moved over to the 60-day injured list. Trevor Rogers<\/a>, Albert Suarez<\/a>, Chayce McDermott<\/a>, Kyle Bradish<\/a> and Tyler Wells<\/a> have all yet to pitch this season. Rogers dislocated his kneecap in January. McDermott suffered a lat strain in February. Suarez\u2019s shoulder flared up in March. He\u2019s now on the 60-day IL, too. Bradish and Wells had UCL surgeries performed just days apart last June.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little recourse for the Orioles at the moment. Rookie Brandon Young<\/a> made his MLB debut earlier this month but has struggled in both of his outings (6.23 ERA, eight walks in 8 2\/3 innings). Gibson made his season debut last night and was promptly shelled for nine runs in 3 2\/3 frames. Triple-A starters Kyle Brnovich<\/a>, Cameron Weston<\/a> and Thaddeus Ward<\/a> have posted results that range from underwhelming to ugly.<\/p>\n

Right now, the hope will be that Povich can build on his last solid outing in tonight\u2019s series finale versus the Yankees. Baltimore has announced that Kremer, Sugano and Gibson will start this weekend, in that order, against a Royals club that has struggled to score runs in 2025. Baltimore is off again next Monday. That gives them the short-term luxury of skipping the fifth spot this next time through the rotation, but the O\u2019s only have one off-day from May 6-28, so that\u2019s a short-term reprieve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orioles used veteran starter out of the bullpen last night when Kyle Gibson\u2019s first start of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1078,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-1819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-charlie-morton","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114428899709537600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}