Charlie Morton logged his first start since being demoted to the bullpen and went six innings only giving up two runs. He may have finally found his groove after starting the season 0-7.

Charlie Morton’s Terrible Start To The 2025 Campaign

Morton’s first 5 starts resulted in 5 losses for the Orioles. After the poor performances, Orioles fans were outraged calling for his release. This caused then manager Brandon Hyde to remove Morton from the pitching rotation and place him in the bullpen. Through his first 5 starts Morton had an ERA of 10.89. His last start of this stint resulted in an Orioles 24-2 loss at the hands of the Reds on Easter.

Charlie Morton being taken out of the game by Orioles ex-manager Brandon Hyde

Here are Morton’s First 5 starts of the season:

Morton’s First Five Starts:

3-28 vs Blue Jays, L 2-8

  • 3.1 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

4-3 vs Red Sox, L 4-8

  • 5.0 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 10 SO

4-8 vs Diamondbacks, L 3-4

  • 5.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 5 BB, 4 SO

4-15 vs Guardians, L 3-6

  • 5.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO

4-20 vs Reds, L 2-24

  • 4.2 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 7 BB, 2 SO

Charlie Morton’s Surprisingly Good Stint In The Bullpen

Morton logged six games in the bullpen this year for the Orioles. All of which the Orioles lost, but many were not Morton’s fault. He served as a long reliever to eat innings in games where the Orioles were losing.

In his first bullpen outing he game into the game in the second inning relieving Keegan Akin. This was a bullpen game and Morton recorded the loss for this game. He gave up 3 runs in the third inning and pitched 3.2 innings in total. 

In his other outings he was much better, allowing no runs in two of his outings and only one run in two others, going 2 or more innings in all of them. His lone one inning outing he gave up 2 runs.

Here are his Stat-lines from the bullpen:

4-26 vs Tigers, L 2-6

  • 3.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 3 SO

4-29 vs Yankees, L 3-15

  • 2.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO

5-4 vs Royals, L 6-11

  • 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO

5-10 vs Angels, L 2-5

  • 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO

5-14 vs Twins, L 6-8

  • 3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

5-17 vs Nationals, L 6-10

  • 4.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

This all adds up to 16.1 Innings pitched with an ERA of 3.86. This isn’t just must better than how he did through his first five starts but just plain good. If he could carry that into being a starter again it would greatly help the struggling Orioles.

CharlieMorton’s Starts Since Being Removed From The Rotation

Morton logged a spot start for the Orioles on May 7th against the twins. In this start he logged his seventh loss, but wasn’t outright bad. He gave the Orioles four innings of three run ball and logged two strikeouts.

Today against the Cardinals, Morton pitched six solid innings only giving up two runs to the tune of his first win and quality start of the season. The two runs were scored via a fifth inning home run by Pedro Pages. Morton was very efficient in this game only giving up six base runners, four by hit and two by walk. This is very promising from Morton and may land him back in the Rotation for the rest of the season.

End Of My Charlie Morton Rant

I am glad to see Morton finally performing well. It has been such a rough start for the Orioles, so any bright spot looks even brighter. It is only one quality start, but this coupled with his performances out of the bullpen may sign that he has returned to form. With the Orioles pitching staff being historically bad, thanks in part to Morton, him playing well is paramount if Baltimore wants to turn their season around