Chicago’s interest in Adrian Morejon may not be dead after all - it may just be taking a different route.
Last week, Cubs fans got the discouraging message that the team wouldn’t be seriously involved for the left-hander in free agency. That wasn’t exactly shocking, given Jed Hoyer’s long track record of avoiding big spending on relievers. But it still landed like a gut punch after the bullpen’s rough 2026 showing.
Now there’s a wrinkle. Morejon didn’t begin his big league career as a full-time reliever.
He made eight starts from 2019-21 while trying to settle in at the major-league level, and that background gives the Cubs a possible opening. Hoyer has been much more willing to invest in starters than late-inning arms, and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic has floated the idea that Chicago could “look to convert dominant left-handed reliever Adrian Morejon into a starter.”
It would be a gamble, no question. But the upside is obvious if the Cubs believed the conditions were right.
Morejon’s performance gives the idea some real teeth. Over the last two seasons, he leads all left-handed relievers in fWAR at 5.1 and in appearances with 151.
He’s also second in FIP at 2.33, trailing only Aroldis Chapman. The stuff jumps off the page, too.
His Baseball Savant numbers are loaded with red: a 38.6% chase rate, which ranks in the 99th percentile, and a 34.2% whiff rate, good for the 97th percentile.
There’s recent precedent for this kind of move working. Michael King, another Cubs target, turned himself into a legitimate Game 1 starter after first thriving out of the bullpen. Clay Holmes also made the leap well enough to get the Cubs to forfeit Jefferson Rojas at the trade deadline.
But this path comes with real complications. Morejon has said he wants to stay in the bullpen, so a club would need to sell him hard on giving up his closer ambitions. Money would have to be part of that pitch.
Sharma suggested the Cubs would likely only be interested in Morejon as a starter at a price similar to what Holmes received from the Mets - three years, $38 million - when Holmes began his transition. That figure may not be enough to matter if Morejon is being pursued as a pure reliever, where his market could climb even higher.
Then there’s the qualifying offer, which only adds another layer of difficulty.
So the idea is there, and the talent is there. Whether the Cubs are willing to stretch far enough to make it happen is another matter entirely. Those “exact conditions” may never line up.
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