The Mariners have made a habit of piecing together bullpens on the cheap, and that approach has worked plenty of times. They’ve turned waiver claims into usable arms and found leverage innings in places other teams passed over. But heading into 2027, there’s a strong case for Seattle to stop shopping for bargains and pay up for Padres left-hander Adrián Morejón.
Morejón looks like the kind of reliever who could change the shape of Seattle’s bullpen. He’s coming off a huge 2026 season for San Diego, finishing with a 2.83 ERA, 107 strikeouts and a 1.08 WHIP over 86 innings. That’s a real workload for a reliever, and it stands out even more because no Mariners bullpen arm reached 67 1/3 innings in 2026; that total belonged to Eduard Bazardo.
This isn’t about adding another project for the pitching lab to polish. Seattle needs someone who can walk into a messy sixth inning or clean up a late-inning problem before handing things off to Andres Munoz. Morejón fits that job description.
He’s more than a left-handed specialist, too. He can get out a dangerous lefty, stay in for the right-handed hitter behind him, and occasionally work deeper than the standard one-inning reliever.
He also doesn’t have to be boxed into a pure setup role. Some nights the leverage shows up in the sixth, and Seattle needs someone who can handle that without being eased in.
San Diego used him in 76 regular-season appearances, and he handled a heavier workload than the usual late-inning one-inning arm while limiting traffic. Put that next to Munoz and a healthy Matt Brash, and the Mariners suddenly have a bullpen that can attack the best part of an opposing lineup instead of saving every top arm for a preset inning.
Munoz would still be the closer. Morejón’s job would be to get the game to him more often.
That matters for a Seattle bullpen model that has looked sharp when the health has cooperated and the reclamation hits have landed. It has also shown how fragile it can be when one important arm goes down. Brash made only 20 appearances in 2026 before recurring lat inflammation shut him down, and while he could still be a major piece, Seattle can’t simply pencil him into the setup role and call it solved.
A reliever like Morejón would give the Mariners a proven leverage piece they’ve lacked when injuries pushed everyone else up a rung. Brash could be used according to his health.
Gabe Speier and José A. Ferrer could be slotted into the matchups that fit them best.
Morejón won’t come cheap, but that’s the idea. The Mariners have shown they can find relievers without major contracts, and that skill still matters.
It just shouldn’t become the entire philosophy. Bargain hunting works best when the roster already has enough certainty to survive the misses that usually come with it.
At 28 years old in 2027, Morejón would be in the middle of his prime and right inside Seattle’s competitive window. There’s also no prospect package involved here, which means the Mariners would be spending money instead of draining a farm system that may need to supply affordable position-player help in the coming seasons. Any qualifying-offer complications would have to wait until San Diego makes its offseason call, but this still looks like a cleaner path than trading premium talent for a similar reliever.
Seattle already has a rotation built to hand over close games, and Munoz is one of the best closers in baseball. Morejón is the piece that could tie those strengths together and make six good innings feel like a finished product.
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The broader takeaway for the Mariners is that they do not seem content to treat the current staff structure as fixed. The piece points to outside names such as Billy Facteau and Jeff Livesey as coaches worth keeping on the radar, which fits a larger pattern of Seattle exploring talent both inside and beyond the organization as it considers where its next staff upgrades might come from. [Read more 🡒]