With Dodgers Adding Kyle Tucker, Padres' Left-Handed Relievers Face Big Challenge

[Steve Drumwright]

It is a good thing the San Diego Padres have three left-handers in their current bullpen setup for the 2026 season.

All three are going to be vital in matchups against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the back-to-back World Series champions who feature four left-handed hitters in their starting lineup. All four are superstar-quality hitters following the recent addition of free-agent right fielder Kyle Tucker on a four-year, $240 million contract.

If you thought that Adrian Morejon, Wandy Peralta and Yuki Matsui already had their hands full with the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, Tucker just adds to the problem.

Morejon shoulders the brunt of the key-situation responsibility as the top lefty out of the Friars' bullpen. Overall, the soon-to-be 27-year-old, set to become a free agent after the 2026 season, does well against left-handed hitters, sporting a .225 opponent batting average. But it isn't the same against the Dodgers' quartet, even if it does come in a small sample size.

Tucker, in fact, has the most success among the aforementioned Dodgers against Morejon, going 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. Mainly due to being in the AL for five years and with the NL's Chicago Cubs in 2025, Tucker has never faced Morejon more than twice in a season (as he did last year). But it was Tucker's first plate appearance vs. Morejon that set the tone for this matchup. It came Aug. 23 in the pandemic-throttled 2020 season at Petco Park when Morejon made one of his nine career starts (four that year).

After retiring George Springer and Jose Altuve to begin the game, Morejon gave up a single to left by Carlos Correa, bringing Tucker to the plate. In his first season of consistent MLB playing time, Tucker took a high four-seam fastball at 97.4 on the inside corner for strike one. Morejon came back with another four-seamer at 97.1 mph, but left it out over the middle of the plate and Tucker sent it out to left field, just out of the reach of a leaping Jurickson Profar for a two-run blast. The Friars would come back to win 5-3.

Morejon wouldn't face Tucker again until 2024, in the 10th inning of the Sept. 17 game also at Petco. With the automatic runner at second to begin the 10th, Morejon was brought in to face the two most dangerous hitters in the Astros' lineup. First was another lefty hitter in Yordan Alvarez, who grounded out on a 1-2 pitch to first with the runner moving to third. Tucker came up and was aggressive, going after the first pitch — this time a sinker at 97.4 mph that was up and on the inside corner — and looped a single to left field to push ahead the go-ahead run in a 4-3 Friars loss.

In 2025, with Tucker now on the Cubs, the pair squared off on back-to-back days at Petco Park. The first was April 14 when Morejon came in to face Tucker, due up second, in a 3-3 game in the top of the seventh. After a walk to Ian Happ, a switch-hitter batting right, Tucker strode to the plate. It was a spirited at-bat, with Morejon falling behind 2-0, then 3-1 before firing a couple of sinkers just off the inside corner, the first one at 97.4 mph being fouled off, then swinging and missing at a 98.4 mph offering, the fifth straight sinker of this showdown, for a strikeout. The Padres won 10-4.

The next day, Morejon was called upon for extended duty. After Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner opened the top of the sixth with singles to put runners on the corners, Morejon came in to face lefty-hitting Pete Crow-Armstrong, who put down a perfect bunt in front of the plate that scored Swanson with no play at first by first baseman Luis Arraez to tie the game 1-1. Morejon escaped further damage, but would be called upon to face Tucker leading off the seventh as his final batter of the night. Morejon missed high and inside with an 86.4 mph slider, then went back to a 96.1 sinker that was high and on the inside corner that Tucker pulled for a single.

What does all that mean for a Morejon-Tucker matchup this season? The Friars might want to tread carefully until Morejon proves he can get the better of the Dodgers' newest star, which would leave it up to Peralta and Matsui to deal with him.

Peralta has had success against Tucker, while Matsui has yet to face him.

Peralta has faced Tucker seven times in their careers, all coming in the last four seasons, including four in 2023. Only once has Tucker gotten a hit off Peralta, who has three strikeouts in those showdowns. The one blemish for Peralta came when he was with the New York Yankees in an Aug. 3 game against the Astros at Yankee Stadium. Peralta was brought in to face Tucker, Alex Bregman and Alvarez to start the sixth inning and the Yankees up 3-2.

The first two pitches to Tucker were sinkers low, fouling off a 95.3 mph one before taking a 96.8 mph offering that appeared to clip the bottom of the zone but called a ball. Peralta then threw an 87.1 mph changeup that was a meatball gobbled up by Tucker and crushed into the second deck down the right-field line to tie the game. Peralta got another shot against Tucker in the series finale on Aug. 6. Again brought in to face the tough lefties, this time with Alvarez hitting ahead of Tucker, Peralta came on with two on and one out after current Yankees teammate and future Friars teammate Jhony Brito walked a pair in the top of the fifth inning of a 5-5 game. After striking out Alvarez on five pitches, Peralta threw a 96.3 mph slider on the first pitch that Tucker drove deep to left-center field for the final out of the inning.

They didn't face each other in 2024 and Peralta retired Tucker both times they faced each other in 2025, once on a groundout and the other a strikeout during the series at Petco Park.

Matsui has the worst record vs. the Dodgers' big four left-handed hitters, but he also only has two seasons in MLB.

Once thought to be a closer-in-waiting for the Padres, Matsui has turned out to be a middle-innings bullpen piece as he enters his third season since coming over from Japan. Matsui has allowed an opponent batting average of .241 to left-handed batters in MLB, while Peralta is at .221 and Morejon is at .225.

Containing Ohtani has been difficult, even for the Padres. Morejon, Peralta and Matsui have allowed 10 hits in 32 at-bats (.313) to the four-time MVP. Freeman has also owned Peralta (5-for-12), but Morejon and Matsui have limited him to just a 2-for-15 line.

This trio will need to be at its best if the Padres are to have a shot at competing with the Dodgers in 2026.

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