San Diego Padres Pitchers Of The Month: June 2025

June was another mediocre month for the Padres, which represents exactly how the team has fared since their flaming-hot start to the season. San Diego finished June 13-15, which was good enough to keep themselves in the playoff race, but they certainly aren’t gaining any ground. 

These results stem from the Padres' continuing dilemma of underperforming offense, yet solid pitching. Despite subpar years from some of the arms, the staff has continued to produce quality innings. 

In June, Padres pitching ranked around the top ten of many major categories. They finished with a 3.3 WAR (11th), 3.91 FIP (12th), 8.74 K/9 (10th), and a 3.75 ERA (7th). Additionally, their outlier statistics seemed to offset each other. Despite the squad's struggle with giving up free passes at 3.67 BB/9 (27th), they limited the impact of these baserunners by preventing home runs to a tune of 0.92 HR/9 (3rd). 

Due to the solid performances from the pitching staff, Padres pitchers of the month were quite competitive. Several guys stepped up, some delivering dominant stuff with some unlucky outcomes, and others who had stellar outings but took advantage of some hard-hit outs. 

The honorable mention for starting pitching this month goes to Stephen Kolek. Kolek certainly has an argument for pitcher of the month as his starts had the best individual outcomes in terms of run prevention. He led the boys with 32 innings pitched in June and made the most of these starts with a 3.38 ERA and 3.87 FIP. 

Taking a deeper dive, the key to Kolek’s June success was keeping the ball in the park. His 6.47 K/9 wasn’t jumping off the stat sheet, and his 3.09 BB/9 is fine but not a catalyst for dominance. What fueled this run was a 0.56 HR/9 rate that prevented many of his starts from getting out of hand, as big at-bats produced multiple runs. He did have a stretch in June with 11 runs allowed in three starts, so consistency will be key moving forward if Kolek hopes to continue producing, but as long as he’s not giving up home runs, he should be just fine. 

For relievers, it’s another close call. The honorable mention for bullpen arms is Jason Adam, who has continued to dominate in San Diego. He led the relievers with a 0.7 WAR, 1.32 FIP, 11.66 K/9, and 14.2 IP. 

What makes Adam’s month especially impressive is that he produced to that level despite some notable lack of luck. His increase from 1.32 FIP to 2.72 xFIP suggests that he was giving up some hard contact, but not to the level of his absurd .439 BABIP. By getting key strikeouts and throwing clutch pitches, he was able to limit the impact of that BABIP and complete June with a nice 2.45 ERA, all without giving up a single home run. 

Now for the winners. The best starting pitcher for San Diego in June goes to Dylan Cease. 

It’s been a slow burn for Cease this season after his poor start. Over the last two months, he has lowered his ERA closer to the sub-four number we are used to seeing from him. While the production statistics, such as ERA and wins, have taken time to return to normal, it appears that with this month, Cease has gotten his stuff back. The advanced numbers all suggest that he is returning to form as an elite pitcher, and he just needs some luck, health, and consistency to finish the year on a dominant run. 

The production wasn’t elite, but it was still an improvement on his season totals as Cease completed the month with a 4.23 ERA in 27.2 IP. The signs of brilliance come in the advanced numbers, where it is clear that Cease can still dominate. He led the Padres by far in three crucial categories with a 3.05 FIP, 3.49 xFIP, and 0.7 WAR. He was able to produce these numbers by missing a lot of bats, as Cease also topped the squad at 12.69 K/9 and had a great 0.65 HR/9. Both of these numbers were more than enough to make up for his walk struggles (4.88 BB/9). 

It also appears that, like Adams, Cease struggled with some unlucky at-bats in June. His .333 BABIP led the starters and is sure to drop as the season progresses. Unfortunately, allowing too many base runners can be doom for any pitcher, so his high walk rate, combined with that .333 BABIP, was too much for his ERA to stay low. Despite this, every other metric discussed suggests that this was more a result of luck than his pitching. Overall, it was a huge month for Cease that could be his catalyst for a dominant second half. 

Finally, we have our reliever of the month. Adrian Morejon had a huge month and was the key reason the pen stayed afloat despite lackluster innings from Suarez and Estrada. The backbone of Morejon being the best reliever of June is simple; his production was near perfect. In 13.1 IP, he didn’t allow a single earned run. It’s hard to ask for any more than that from a reliever. 

What is even better for Morejon is that the advanced numbers suggest this was sustainable dominance. Now, obviously, no pitcher can go without giving up runs here and there, but Morejon’s 1.59 FIP, 2.47 xFIP represent elite stuff, and he got it done by being productive in many ways. His 8.78 K/9 was only okay, but when combined with a pinpoint 1.35 BB/9, it plays a lot better. On top of that, he joined Adams in not allowing a single home run this month. This ultimately resulted in a very good 0.6 WAR in June for Morejon. 

Although the success is sustainable, Morejon did benefit from some of the opposite luck that Adams and Cease had, as his 1.18 BABIP was the lowest on the team. Surely, much of this is a result of him generating weak contact, but a low strikeout pitcher is eventually going to have some ups and downs with BABIP, which will affect the production stats. For June, however, this was no issue as Morejon produced consistent, productive outings in huge situations. 

San Diego fans were hoping for more from their Padres overall in June. Hopefully, an offensive awakening and some better pitching luck will be just what they need to lock back into a playoff spot. Until then, these were the guys holding it down for the pitching staff in June.