Adrian Morejon’s market may be getting more complicated, but his preference is pretty clear: he wants to keep pitching out of the bullpen.
According to Charlie Wright of MLBTradeRumors.com, the San Diego Padres left-hander is drawing interest from multiple teams that want to try him as a starter. Morejon, though, is not eager to make that jump.
That stance could leave some money on the table, but it also makes sense given the season he just put together. Wright described it as a dominant platform year while Morejon handled setup work for closer Mason Miller in one of baseball’s best bullpens.
He logged a 2.83 ERA, struck out 30.4 percent of hitters and set a career high with 86 innings. He also tied for fifth in the league with 28 holds, added three saves and blew five.
The bigger picture is even stronger. Since the start of 2024, Morejon has piled up 60 holds, 25 wins and eight saves while working in high-leverage spots and posting a sub-3.00 ERA with solid strikeout totals and strong control.
Morejon’s path to this point has included a little bit of everything. The Padres signed him as an international free agent in 2016, and he did start games in the lower levels of the minors. When he debuted for San Diego in 2019, though, he worked in a swing role.
His hesitation to move back into a starting job may also tie into the Tommy John surgery he underwent in 2021. Since then, he has been almost entirely a reliever, with his only start coming as an extended opener in 2023.
Wright noted that the stuff could translate if a team pushed him into a rotation role. Morejon works with a sinker/changeup combination, then mixes in a slider and a four-seamer. It’s a varied enough arsenal to give hitters on both sides of the plate problems.
Velocity, though, could be the real sticking point. Morejon throws one of the hardest sinkers in the league, and he averaged at least 99 miles an hour with both his sinker and four-seamer. That kind of power plays up in short bursts, but it’s fair to wonder whether it would hold over a starter’s workload.
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