Charlie Morton ‘expected’ to need Tommy John surgery

This is some pretty upsetting news (via the Trib). Morton has a torn elbow ligament that will apparently put him out for the rest of the season. Charlie hit the DL after feeling pain on May 29, but the injury was reportedly minor. That doesn’t seem to be the case any more, although the team has not yet commented on the situation. Tommy John surgery requires about a year’s time for a full recovery. Obviously this hurts the Bucs in the short term. We’ve seen their struggles in the back of the rotation these last two days, and even though Morton wasn’t pitching great before the injury, he was a good bet to help the situation somewhat (especially if he would’ve started pitching better like the numbers indicated). Now, they’re still waiting on Jeff Karstens to recover and are going to have to use either Jeff Locke or Rudy Owens to replace Brad Lincoln or Kevin Correia, which they still seem hesitant to do. Additionally, this puts Morton’s future with the team in to some question. He’s al...