MINNEAPOLIS -- When the question was posed to Charlie Morton on Wednesday night, he paused for a moment to think. He always does.
The 41-year-old then gave a response that was well thought out and reflective, another staple of the 18-year MLB veteran.
Is Morton fully committed to getting his 2025 season on track as long as the Orioles continue to give him opportunities to pitch?
The short answer: Yes. But with Morton, there are no short answers.
“Those thoughts kind of creep into your head -- ‘What am I doing?’ Right? Because if I’m not helping the team, if I’m just kind of weighing the team down, I think maybe we’d talk about that,” Morton said. “It would be way easier if I was throwing 89-91 [mph] and my curve wasn’t spinning and my changeup wasn’t sinking and running and my cutter wasn’t consistent.
“It would be way easier just to go, ‘You know what, I don’t have it anymore. I just don’t have the physical talent to do it anymore.’ But the problem is I do.”
Nobody predicted Morton would pitch like this -- certainly not him or the O’s, who are paying the right-hander $15 million and planned on him being a key part of their rotation.
Instead, Morton had a 10.89 ERA over his first five starts before being moved to the bullpen. He had a 6.43 ERA in three relief outings. Then, Baltimore needed a spot start Wednesday at Target Field -- a one-off until Zach Eflin (right lat strain) rejoins the rotation this weekend in Anaheim -- and gave it to Morton.
Comparatively, Morton wasn’t bad in the Orioles’ 5-2 loss to the Twins. He allowed three runs in four innings, but all of the damage came via Byron Buxton’s three-run homer in the third inning.
Buxton has been red-hot, having gone deep in three straight games. Morton hung a first-pitch curveball over the heart of the plate. And in one swing, Minnesota scored more runs than Baltimore did all night.
But Morton wasn’t happy following the performance. He has much higher expectations for himself. He wants to help guide the struggling O’s (13-22) to victories. Instead, they’re 0-9 in games he has pitched and 13-13 in ones in which he hasn’t taken the mound.
“The results are so bad that there will be times just randomly in the day I’ll think about it,” Morton said. “I’ll think about how poorly I’ve pitched, and I’ll think about how bad the results are. And honestly, it feels like -- it’s almost, like, shocking to me. I have the experience, I have knowledge. I still think that I still physically have the tools to be a halfway decent pitcher.”
Numbers from Wednesday support that. Morton’s four-seam fastball looked sharp, sitting around 94-95 mph and maxing out at 96.2. It induced eight whiffs among 15 swings against it.
Morton’s curveball hasn’t been as effective, but his spin rate of 3,151 revolutions per minute was above his season average (3,110). His other pitches looked like fine complementary offerings.
“It’s really hard for me to think that there’s not a possibility that I just go out there and have a decent stretch, or a decent year,” Morton said. “So when I wake up and I think about, ‘Man, how poorly this has gone,’ it’s honestly like sometimes I don’t really know how to process it other than trying to be honest and rational with myself.”
Manager Brandon Hyde said this “could be a step in the right direction” for Morton. It’s hard to say it’s not when he could have had a scoreless outing had he made a better pitch to Buxton.
Morton (9.38 ERA in 31 2/3 innings) understands his options.
“You either quit. You give up. You give in. Or you say, ‘What’s coming out of my hand still can get outs.’ It’s just finding a way to better implement it,” Morton said. “It’s just getting momentum going. I think that right now, probably the hardest thing to do is just tying it all together, pitch to pitch, batter to batter, inning to inning.”
So Morton will keep going. He’s likely heading back to the bullpen (at least for now), but he’s committed to trying to help the Orioles -- now on a season-high four-game losing streak and nine games below .500 for the first time since July 2, 2022 -- get their season on track.
It would sure help if this was a building block and Morton gets his own season moving in the right direction.