The Padres were thinking about turning their young left-handed reliever with five pitches back into a starting pitcher before the 2025 season.
The young man helped them make that decision by pushing back.
After so many interruptions and a whole bunch of work to finally get his body right and have it stay right, he told pitching coach Ruben Niebla he was ready to commit to being the best reliever he could be.
“I told him, the people are thinking I’m the No. 40 reliever in the league,” the young pitcher recalled. “I told him, ‘I stay in the bullpen, next season I will be in the top 10.’”
Owning that choice perhaps locked in a career trajectory that appears headed to a level that was envisioned a decade ago but seemed unlikely a few years ago.
Because Adrian Morejón became Adrian Morejón in 2025.
At 26, he was a humbled yet more confident version of the 16-year-old who came from Cuba with a big bonus and bigger bravado.
An argument could be made that Morejón was the Padres’ most valuable player in 2025.
And now before him is a gigantic next step — one that will determine his stature among relievers, the size of his pending payday and perhaps the level of success the Padres achieve in ’26.
“The biggest thing is that he has to be able to understand is what made him good and be able to do it again,” Niebla said. “Because there is a level of him last year being so good in those moments that this year he might take it for granted, like it’s just gonna happen. Baseball’s a m—f— like that. It’ll humble you in a hurry. And so it is being able to say, ‘Hey, I need to stay locked in the same way I was last year.’”
Perhaps it is a positive sign toward that aim that the kid whose first seven or so years in the Padres organization were interrupted practically countless times by myriad shoulder, leg and back issues and one big elbow issue, pitched in 75 games (a career-high 73⅔ innings) last season and felt so good that he increased his winter workouts.
After going heavy on his shoulders and back in the offseason, Morejón came out this spring throwing harder than ever.
He was already one of the game’s hardest-throwing left-handers, with an average velocity of 97.7 mph on his sinker. That only makes his disappearing changeup and elusive slider more baffling.
His throwing triple digits seemed extraneous. He didn’t need to do it.
But here he is.
He hit 100 mph for the first time in his major league career last July and then did it three more times, hitting 100.7 mph on Sept. 1.
Of the 82 sinkers he threw this spring, 12 were at least 100 mph, and he topped out at 101.1.
“Everybody is asking the same question,” Morejón said. “But I don’t know why that is.”
Adrian Morejon #50 of the San Diego Padres participates in drills during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
What he is certain about is who he is.
And it is clear that the Padres have in Morejón one of the best left-handed relief pitchers in the game and — the presence of closer Mason Miller notwithstanding — arguably the most important piece in a bullpen that is considered the strength of the team.
There were 16 games last season in which Morejón entered with at least one runner on and the Padres tied or ahead by one run. He stranded all runners he inherited in 12 of those games.
That is 12 victories the Padres would not have had if he allowed a single runner to score. (In seven of those instances, he inherited at least one runner in scoring position.)
Morejón stranded all but five of the 45 runners he inherited last season.
That 11.1% rate of allowing inherited runners to score was best in the major leagues by any pitcher who inherited at least 45 runners and the seventh best by any reliever (minimum 45 inherited runners) since at least 1974.
“If you’re in those situations, if you’re not mentally tough, able to move on one pitch to the next, make each pitch the most important pitch you’ve ever thrown your life, you’re gonna have trouble in those situations,” said manager Craig Stammen, a former reliever. “So seeing him be that successful in those situations lets me know he can handle about anything on the mound.”
Adrian Morejon #50 of the San Diego Padres pitches during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz.(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The gravity of that assessment is particularly immense. His growth year over year is remarkable.
It is not that 2024 was a bad season. It bordered on excellent. It was his best to date.
Morejón was good enough, threw hard enough and had learned enough about using his immense talent manipulating a baseball that he posted a 2.83 ERA while striking out 71 batters in 63⅔ innings (60 games) in ‘24. He allowed a .256 batting average, a .314 on-base percentage and allowed eight of 23 inherited runners (34.8%) to score.
It just seemed he was barely hanging on much of the time.
He led the Padres (and maybe the league) in mound visits.
Sometimes a pitching coach visits the mound to talk strategy regarding a certain hitter, and every pitcher gets a visit from time to time.
Niebla went out to see Morejón more than any other pitcher on the staff in 2024.
And both men, whose relationship veers toward that of a father and son, acknowledge that those midgame chats most often involved some psychological massaging.
There were 52 games in 2024 in which Morejón had a runner on — either by his own hand or having inherited that runner. In 28 of those, more often than not immediately after a runner reached base, Niebla visited the mound to talk to him. Another seven times, manager Mike Shildt visited to remove Morejón from the game.
That means that in nearly 70% of his appearances where he faced some traffic, Morejón could not get through it without a pep talk and/or strategy session or could not get through it at all.
A year later, not only was he stranding runners at a historic rate, Niebla hardly talked to him in those instances of higher stress.
Just 17 of the 60 times in which Morejón had a runner on base in 2025 was he visited by Niebla. He was removed from the game eight other times, meaning he breezed through without outside interference 60% of the time.
“The maturity level, just like, just the comfortability within himself,” Niebla said of the difference in Morejón.
Opponents hit .186 against him, 19th in MLB among qualifying relievers. They reached base at a .235 clip, fifth best in MLB. His average of 13.6 pitches per innings was third lowest.
Adrian Morejon, center, walks with other pitchers during a Feb. 19 spring training practice in Peoria, Ariz. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
He became the pitcher the Padres envisioned when they signed him for $11 million in 2016.
Or at least a version of that.
Morejón began the 2021 season in the starting rotation before undergoing Tommy John surgery in April. Even when he came back as a reliever, struggling with his command and consistency but tantalizing with his pitch mix, he and the Padres kept talking about him one day being a part of the rotation.
But he made 60 appearances in 2024, his first healthy season, and it was as if a switch flipped in his mind.
Heading into 2026, his final year before being eligible for free agency, Morejón speaks like a veteran who knows what it takes to be consistent.
“For me right now, just the same goal of every year: stay healthy,” he said. “If I stay healthy, it’s better for me, and I can try to make it a better season than last year.”