REPORT: Charlie Morton to DL; Vance Worley to rotation

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Charlie Morton, thought by many to be ready for Opening Day, will instead start the 2015 season on the disabled list. This as per Travis Sawchick of the Tribune Review:

As we can see from Sawchick’s report, Vance Worley will take Morton’s spot in the starting rotation.  Morton got the start today against the Phillies, but by all reports, he was very labored, going for only 1.2 innings.  He gave up five earned runs while walking five in the Pirates’ final spring tuneup before the season starts on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds.  

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When Clint Hurdle originally announced that Jeff Locke had won the final spot in the starting rotation over Worley, there was a small, yet vocal, contingent among Pirates fans that wondered if the better call would have been to move Morton out of the rotation instead of Worley.  Those fans will now get the chance to see what such a rotation may look like.  Suddenly a rotation that had seemed to be rock solid now may seem a bit top-heavy, with Francisco Liriano, Gerrit Cole, and A.J. Burnett holding down the front of the rotation.  Despite his propensity for shaky innings, Morton’s ground-ball heavy style was the perfect complement to the overall Pirates pitching philosophy.  It remains to be seen if the trip to the DL was due to lingering concerns with Morton’s recent hip surgery, or due to the fact that he was just not pitching that well.

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