The Baltimore Orioles must cut bait with their own mistake. The O's signed right-handed veteran Charlie Morton this offseason as one of their marquee moves. Ground Chuck, as he was once known, is on the wrong side of 40 and pitching like it.
At this stage of his career, Morton is best-served as a middle-of-the-rotation starting pitcher at best. Unfortunately, the Orioles are relying on Morton to pick up a struggling rotation, and one that has been tortured by injuries as well. Zach Eflin, Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Bradish and more are all hurt, and there's no guarantee they'll be back anytime soon. In the meantime, Morton has received unfair criticism for not stepping up in his role. On the same day he dropped to 0-5 in a 24-2 Baltimore loss, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde sounded off on the pitching staff:
"You’re just not going to be able to win games that way," Hyde said. "You’re going to win them once in a while because you’re going to outscore teams, but that’s not how you win Major League Baseball games."
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The Orioles need so much more from Charlie Morton and their starting pitching
Morton has since lost another game – he is 0-6 with a 9.45 ERA – and at this stage would be better off retiring than pitching another game for the Orioles. It's unclear how much patience Hyde and Mike Elias have for Morton, even if this is a problem of their own creation. Just this past winter, the Orioles had a chance to re-sign Corbin Burnes, but whiffed miserably. Burnes is the kind of pitcher who can make up for deficiencies elsewhere.
Rather than give Burnes the six-year offer he wanted and eventually accepted, the Orioles tried to make him the highest-paid pitcher in baseball on a four-year deal. That was never going to work, as Brunes valued longevity and stability, something the O's never offered. Worse than losing Burnes is that Baltimore did the bare minimum to replace him. Eflin is a nice piece. Morton is far from a workhorse, and while the Orioles do have some capable young starting pitchers when healthy, this season has been a case study in what can go wrong with that plan.
However, even if the Orioles can right the ship from a starting pitching perspective, that likely should not include Morton barring a massive change in his approach. Right now, he's just not cutting it, and could be one of the reasons Baltimore fails to reach their ultimate goal.