{"id":835969,"date":"2026-10-23T13:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T13:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/835969\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T13:21:15","slug":"padres-notes-adrian-morejon-contract-prediction-ethan-salas-in-competition-relievers-market-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/835969\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Notes: Adrian Morejon Contract Prediction, Ethan Salas in Competition, Relievers Market Value"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9u\">The San Diego Padres had one of the best bullpens in baseball over the course of the regular season, but one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle is not only a free agent, but expected to get one of the biggest pitching contracts this offseason. Adrian Morejon, a 27-year-old left-hander, is coming off another effective season with an ERA of 2.83, but is expected to be paid like a top reliever because of his resume and age.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9z\">In other news, rookie catcher Ethan Salas had another impressive year in the Padres&#8217; farm system, leading to his call-up in September. Though the backstop showed tons of potential in his short sample size at the major league level \u2014 both offensively and defensively \u2014 president of baseball operations AJ Preller appeared to pump the brakes on handing the rookie the title of starting catcher moving forward. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a4\">\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s going to be guaranteed anything,\u201d Preller said. \u201cFor Ethan, for example, it\u2019s going to be a competition-type situation for him. He showed he can compete at the big league level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a9\">Finally, a few free agent contract predictions have been revealed from the aforementioned dominant bullpen. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ae\">It is no question that the starting pitching rotation will essentially have to be rebuilt over the offseason, but the bullpen had the opposite issue over the regular season. They displayed their elite nature day-in and day-out, but their overuse over the grind of a long MLB season showed itself in October. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"aj\">One of the biggest puzzles that Preller is going to have to assemble this offseason deals with how the payroll will look come 2027. If money is allocated on one area of the team, it doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that it will be taken away from another. However, when it comes to the starting pitching\/bullpen productions, perhaps the final pricetag after the offseason will reveal where the front office&#8217;s priorities were over the winter. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ao\">Here\u2019s all the latest Padres news and stories (click the headline for the full article):<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"at\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/adrian-morejon-predicted-earn-90-million-contract-can-padres-afford\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Adrian Morejon Predicted to Earn $90 Million Contract; Can Padres Afford Him?<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ay\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/padres-aj-preller-pumps-brakes-ethan-salas-starting-catcher-2027\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Padres&#8217; AJ Preller Pumps the Brakes on Ethan Salas Being Starting Catcher in 2027<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/san-diego-padres-pending-free-agents-market-values-revealed-relief-pitchers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> San Diego Padres&#8217; Pending Free Agents&#8217; Market Values Revealed: Relief Pitchers<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b8\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/biggest-thing-separating-padres-world-series-teams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> The Biggest Thing Separating the Padres From World Series Teams<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bd\">Padres Tweets of the Day<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Padres LHP Adrian Morejon has been predicted to earn a contract worth $90 MILLION\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40 <\/p>\n<p>Would you want to see the Padres give him that to say in San Diego? Why or why not?\u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cvCzOcmpR7\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/cvCzOcmpR7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Padres On SI (@PadresOnSI) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PadresOnSI\/status\/2113362276254130472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After 2022 happened, I honestly stopped caring about the seasons after<\/p>\n<p>My dream already came true. Eliminating the dodgers in the playoffs<\/p>\n<p>We already showed the dodgers what we are capable of<\/p>\n<p>This was the moment the dodgers started respecting us<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ljINxe9IzG\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ljINxe9IzG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Padres Farm (@Pads1818) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pads1818\/status\/2113309132057104826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller wasn&#8217;t ready to name Ethan Salas the starting catcher in 2027\ud83d\udc40\u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/suPyxxi3jp\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/suPyxxi3jp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Padres On SI (@PadresOnSI) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PadresOnSI\/status\/2113337639055016358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dustin Harris 100 PA&#8217;s<br \/>322\/.364\/.422<br \/>Samad Taylor 175 PA&#8217;s<br \/>.316\/.390\/.408<\/p>\n<p>Both on the league minimum &amp; controlled for years to come. Tough to see the Padres spending much money in LF<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 switz (@JasonLSwitzer) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JasonLSwitzer\/status\/2113427582121050473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We looked at the biggest thing separating the Padres from the 2 World Series teams, and what San Diego can do this offseason to get there\ud83d\udc40\u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5a5lAo60q5\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/5a5lAo60q5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Padres On SI (@PadresOnSI) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PadresOnSI\/status\/2113416297795010652?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I miss Padres baseball ngl <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UBdg6PL64j\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/UBdg6PL64j<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Giannis Auntiegotapoodle (@TooMuchMortons_) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TooMuchMortons_\/status\/2113254493450310083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"cc\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/padres\/onsi\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61581307683573\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PadresOnSI\" rel=\"nofollow\">X\/Twitter<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-BPnU_7su.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"ci\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Diego Padres had one of the best bullpens in baseball over the course of the regular&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,4,43,137,18,4339,4338],"class_list":["post-835969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego-padres","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-padres","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sandiego","tag-sandiegopadres"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117490436588644821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}