Adrian Morejon Has Pitched Himself Into A Closer Role, Whether With Padres or Another Team

[Randy Holt]

At this point, there's very little mystery around Adrian Morejon. But given his standing within the San Diego Padres organization ahead of the 2026 season, there was never supposed to be. 

With Mason Miller set up for ninth-inning duty at the onset of the campaign, Morejon was expected to enter the season as their most important non-closer reliever. Even for a bullpen-forward pitching staff, his skill set had evolved over the last trio of seasons to earn such a status. 

A former starting pitcher that faced injury woes early in his career, Morejon's breakout came in 2024. That year, he posted a 2.83 ERA, a 26.1 percent strikeout rate, and a 7.7 percent walk rate across a career-high 60 appearances. He followed that up with more volume (75 appearances), fewer strikeouts (24.5 percent) but fewer walks (5.9 percent), and better run prevention (2.08 ERA) in 2025. The 2026 season, however, represented a shift both in role and in performance for Morejon. 

The most notable thing about the last three seasons is how he's been deployed. In 2024, Morejon was appearing in games as early as the fourth inning with much of his work being concentrated in the sixth or seventh. The following year was more of the same, primarily deployed in the sixth and seventh with occasional eight-inning stints. This season, though, it was almost exclusively high-leverage work for Morejon. 

For the first time in his career in 2026, the bulk of Morejon's work came in the eighth inning, with 38 of his 86 total innings serving primarily to set up Miller. Another 27 frames came in the seventh. While there was the odd appearance elsewhere, this is the most defined leverage role we've seen for Morejon in any of the last three seasons, and he took advantage of it. 

Among the qualified relievers in baseball in 2026, Morejon's 2.8 figure landed him in fourth. That's noteworthy considering the other six names in the top seven were closers. You'd have to scroll down to Brent Headrick's name in eighth place (2.1 fWAR) to find another non-closer in that elite tier of bullpen savants.

Speaking of (Baseball) Savant, there's all of this to consider as well:

The stuff on its own was, obviously, elite. His fastball velocity sat at its highest point ever with a strikeout rate that also reached a career-best mark. That latter number, at 30.4 percent, ranked 18th among qualifying relievers. But Morejon wasn't the type of reliever solely primed to mow down opposing hitters via the strikeout. There was plenty of that, but when contact was made, it was being driven into the ground. A shift in usage to being more sinker-changeup than sinker-slider resulted in a groundball rate that was five percentage points higher than last year, with the changeup itself contributing to groundball contact more than 77 percent of the time. 

That blend of skills is what made Morejon the game's most essential non-closer relief pitcher in 2026. The strikeouts were there, but even when they weren't, hitters were still otherwise relatively helpless (especially in front of an improved San Diego defense). 

It's entirely possible—maybe even likely—that this is the end of the road for Morejon with the Padres. Set to hit free agency, he's going to command closer-level dollars that appear entirely warranted coming off a season like this one. Some team out on the market may even hand him the ninth-inning gig. Regardless of what shape his future may take, though, it's evident that his 2026 season was the kind seldom seen, wherein he contributed closer-level production despite not possessing the title.

View full article