ATLANTA – Charlie Morton and Dean Kremer are in very different places in their careers.
Morton finds himself on his sixth big league team in his age-41 season, while Kremer has only suited up in an Orioles uniform as a major leaguer in his sixth year. As far as 2025 goes, though, the duo has found their seasons traveling on a similar path, albeit with different stops along the way.
Today, the pair can propel the Orioles to a series win over the Braves.
Let’s start with Morton, who allowed just two earned runs in over five innings of work against his former team last night. The right-hander got off to a disastrous start to the season with a 10.89 ERA in his first five starts.
From there, you know the story. He went to the bullpen, made some mechanical changes, and figured things out in a big way. In his seven starts back in the rotation, Morton has tossed an impressive 2.97 ERA with 44 strikeouts and just 11 walks.
“You could see it was in there,” Jordan Westburg said last night. “Even early in the season, things just weren’t going his way, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I know what changed or what happened, but I had trust in him. I had faith in his ability and his stuff and just the makeup, the guy he is in the clubhouse. We’re all rooting for him.”
Tony Mansolino echoed that sentiment today.
“Charlie’s such a wonderful veteran player,” the interim skipper said today. “He’s such a wonderful human being. The way he conducts himself in the clubhouse every day right now is the same exact way he conducted himself in April … But you look up now over two-plus months, he’s probably been one of the better starters in the game.”
The same case can be made for Kremer. The right-hander’s 2.98 ERA in his last 11 contests mirrors Morton’s 2.97 in the veteran’s last seven.
Much like it has been in the past, the months of March and April were a struggle for Kremer in 2025. Entering May, the right-hander’s ERA sat at 7.04, inflating his career ERA in those months to a 6.24. But there have been a lot of gems ever since.
“Just command of the ball,” Mansolino said. “The split seems like it’s been a little bit better here, command of the fastball has been better. You think about these two guys and the struggles that they’ve had, give credit to our pitching group as well.
I hope next April we kind of get this figured out,” he added.
The key for Kremer is avoiding the big inning. In his previous 11 starts, he’s allowed four or more earned runs four time. In each of those starts, he’s had one inning with at least three earned runs. If he can avoid that snowball today, you can expect another big outing.
Of course, it wasn’t the start to the year that either Morton or Kremer hoped for. But now, the duo is helping to contribute to more winning baseball in Baltimore. In the last 18 games that one of the two has started, the Orioles are 11-7.
Breadcrumbs from the Skipper
Zach Eflin is playing catch but has yet to throw off a mound, according to Mansolino. “I think there’s been some progress and a little bit more optimism there recently,” he added.
Cade Povich is playing catch too, and like Eflin, hasn’t been off the mound yet and doesn’t have a specific timeline for his return. Neither does Cody Poteet, who received an injection recently and should begin throwing over the next few days.