Baltimore Orioles fans have already seen more than enough of the Charlie Morton experience. He was awful as a starter, he was awful behind an opener and he's even been awful since the team demoted him to the bullpen; he leads the league in earned runs and walks allowed, and there's very little sign that the 41-year-old can fix what's broken.
And yet, in the face of all of that evidence, the O's are giving him one more chance. After another blowout loss on Tuesday night, this time to the Minnesota Twins, manager Brandon Hyde announced that Morton would be getting the ball on Wednesday. The fact that he did so just moments after saying, "when we give up a bunch of runs early, we're not handling it real well" was simply icing on the cake.
Hyde: "when we give up a bunch of runs early, we're not handling it real well"
— Eutaw Street Report (@EutawStReport) May 7, 2025
Hyde, in the next breath: "Charlie Morton is starting tomorrow"https://t.co/dJwj1KPjgO
That a pitcher who's been as bad as Morton has been so far would still be getting opportunities to start for a team that entered this season with legitimate World Series aspirations beggars belief. And yet that's somehow not as bleak as the real truth that O's fans are having to confront right now: Baltimore has to ride with Morton because it doesn't have any other choice.
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Orioles have no other choice but to give Charlie Morton a second chance
Sure, if the O's really wanted to, they could ride with a bullpen game or use Morton as a bulk option. But that's hardly a sustainable solution, unless you want to exhaust your pitching staff by July.
The reality is that Baltimore needs someone to take the ball every fifth day. And given all the injuries that have befallen this team so far, from Zach Eflin to Grayson Rodriguez to Kyle Bradish to Tyler Wells to Trevor Rogers to Chayce McDermott, they're running out of someones. The picture at Triple-A Norfolk isn't much rosier: Kyle Brnovich, a 27-year-old non-prospect, is the only regular starter with an ERA below 4 (he's at 3.98).
Are any of those names really a better bet to put up a competitive start than Morton is? You can answer "yes" to that question, and I can't blame you, but Morton does have a recent track record of being an above-average Major League pitcher. If O's fans are looking to point fingers here, they can start with the front office: Mark Elias made this bed when he neglected the rotation this offseason, and now he's forcing everyone to lie in it. Morton needs to be better, but he's also not the one who hinged a team's playoff hopes on him continuing to defy Father Time.