If the Orioles are going to get creative with their rotation, Adrián Morejón is the kind of arm that makes the idea worth talking about.
Baltimore still needs help in the starting staff, and one obvious path would be to simply pay for a starter who can be counted on to keep doing starter things. Mike Elias has not really gone that route, even when the need has looked obvious.
So the more interesting possibility is the one he has not yet pulled off: signing a reliever and stretching him out into a starter. Morejón, a recent Padres pitcher, gives them that chance this winter.
There’s at least some precedent for the move. After the 2024 season, the Orioles were rumored to have interest in trying something similar.
That winter, former Yankees closer Clay Holmes hit free agency, signed a two-year, $26 million deal with the Mets, and then became a starter. It worked out well enough for New York, with Holmes posting a 3.44 ERA in 51 games before the Mets traded him for a prospect when they fell out of the race at the deadline this year.
Morejón brings a strong recent track record of his own. Over the last three seasons with San Diego, he has put up a 2.58 ERA and 1.088 WHIP.
In 2026, he also logged a number of multi-inning relief outings and threw 86 innings, which is not starter volume, but it is closer to that world than most relievers ever get. He also has experience as a starter from before his early 2021 Tommy John surgery.
Age works in his favor too. He’ll enter next season at 28, which matters in a market where plenty of the other top arms are older and carry more back-end risk. The bet on Morejón is not just about what he’s already done; it’s about how long he can keep doing it.
The stuff is real. His Statcast page is loaded with red, and the profile jumps off the screen: velocity, a strong changeup, chase, whiffs, ground balls, weak contact.
He also throws four pitches, which is unusual for a reliever and part of why people keep wondering whether he could start again. He has done it before.
The question is whether he can do it now.
That possibility could matter in a bidding war. If Morejón is open to starting, that gives one team a way to sell itself differently than the rest.
The Orioles may not be the highest bidder, but they do have a rotation opening that other teams may not. They do not have an ace.
They did not have a No. 2-caliber starter in 2026. And they do not have a major league-ready left-hander waiting to step into the rotation.
The price is the next wrinkle. MLB Trade Rumors has him projected for five years and $80 million, while FanGraphs came in at three years and $72 million.
Either way, that is a serious investment for a reliever, even one with this kind of upside. It would also line up in different ways with the market, whether that means a lower annual number than Trevor Rogers, Michael King, and Freddy Peralta, or a shorter commitment that trims some of the long-term danger.
There is also the draft-pick cost. The Padres gave Morejón a qualifying offer, one of only two relievers to get one this offseason.
If the Orioles signed him, they would lose their third-highest pick in next year’s draft, which would most likely be a mid-second-round choice. They would still get a compensation pick at the end of the first round because of the likely departure of Rogers.
If it were up to me, I’d rather see the Orioles just get Rogers. But Birdland knows how Elias tends to operate, and it is hard to picture him diving into the top of the free-agent pitching market. Even after the big Pete Alonso splash last offseason and the more modest Baz and Bradish extensions, that kind of move still feels unlikely.
What does feel believable is Elias chasing the cheaper, shorter, more inventive path: signing Morejón, betting that the price is right, and trying to turn him into a starter. If he does not want to pay for a proven arm and does not want to pay the prospect cost for a trade gamble, Morejón is sitting there as the kind of move that fits his reputation.
This is not some wild, out-of-nowhere notion. Morejón has already been floated as a starter conversion in plenty of free-agent coverage, and some analysts, including FG’s Michael Baumann, think he is better left in the bullpen as a multi-inning weapon. The Orioles may or may not need that kind of pitcher, but they probably are not going to spend $16-20 million per year for one.
So the appeal is obvious: get a discount, take the swing, and if it fails, you can always say the warning signs were there. That is the kind of logic that speaks Elias’s language.
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