The San Diego Padres possess the best bullpen in baseball. The eight arms that make up the Friars bullpen have a 3.03 ERA. The next best belongs to the San Francisco Giants with a 3.25 ERA. One of the biggest reasons for that success is the effectiveness of the high-leverage relievers known as the Four Horseman (thank manager Mike Shildt for that one).
Jeremiah Estrada (2.64 ERA), Adrian Morejon (1.66 ERA), Jason Adam (1.93 ERA) and closer Robert Suarez (3.50 ERA) combine for a 2.43 ERA. Their success
in finishing games has been responsible for the Padres winning many of the games in which the starter was not able to go deep into a game.
Adrián Morejón had a breakout year last season. He was signed as an international player in July 2016 after defecting from Cuba and became eligible as a free agent. He made his debut in 2017 as an eighteen year old. Over the next several seasons, the Padres waited for the highly-rated prospect to stay healthy and reach his potential. The injury bug was an issue for every one of his professional years, culminating in Tommy John surgery in 2021 after having pitched in a handful of major league games as a starter. After rehabbing from his surgery, he returned to the major league team in June of 2022 and pitched out of the bullpen but only pitched 34 innings. He also pitched briefly at three levels of the minors.
He was once again on the IL in 2023 with an elbow sprain and spent the rest of 2023 with El Paso after his rehabilitation from that injury. After starting 2024 with El Paso, Morejon was promoted to the major league team and had a terrific season last year out of the bullpen. He finished the year with a 2.83 ERA for the Friars.
In Dennis Lin’s article for The Athletic, it was revealed that the Padres’ biomechanics lab helped Morejon, with pitching coach Ruben Niebla, lower his arm slot and improve his effectiveness and velocity. As a result, Morejon has stayed healthy and has achieved unprecedented success. At the age of 26, Morejon is still a young pitcher and is under the Padres control through next season (he becomes a free agent in 2027 and is a Scott Boras client).
Morejon’s pitch usage is a bit different than what he used as a starter. Like most high velocity pitchers, the lefty relied on his fastball 62% of the time (2022 stats). His four seam fastball is now his fifth pitch in his arsenal. Morejon uses his sinker 59% of the time and his slider 26%. Next comes his cutter, his changeup and then his four seam (it is now the least used of his pitches with a 4% occurrence). According to Baseball Savant, he has also thrown one knuckleball.
His changeup isn’t the usual circle change. That has been retired and he now has developed the newest pitch in baseball, the kick-change.
The pitch debuted in May against Ronald Acuna Jr of the Atlanta Braves and, according to The Athletic article, has only been thrown 27 times this season. But it has been effective. With five legitimate pitches, Morejon has a 1.9 bWAR, an 8-4 record and a 1.66 ERA in 48.2 innings pitched. He has two saves and has only allowed one home run with 49 strikeouts and nine walks. Hitters have a .162 average against and a 26.3% K rate.
Current closer Robert Suarez leads the National League with 30 saves. He has an opt out at the end of this season and it is highly likely he will exercise that in order to seek a better contract. Suarez is 34 years old and should get the best he can at this point of his career. The Padres will be in need of a new closer next season and Morejon currently leads the high leverage relievers in ERA. His pitch arsenal is elite and his mental toughness can’t be questioned. The organization could do much worse than giving Morejon the opportunity to assume the closer role.
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