Padres Should Budget Big To Keep Key Reliever In Free Agency

The San Diego Padres have a great bullpen, and one of the luxuries the’ve had in maintaining it is that none of the relievers cost that much. That’s vital for a team with several large, bloated contracts that’s already over the salary cap, but that’s about to change. 

We’re not talking about the lockout here — not yet, anyway, according to Andy McCullough of The Athletic, there’s going to be a “free-agent frenzy,” and it’s going to start a few weeks before the lockout begins on Dec. 1. 

The backdrop will be the GM meetings, which happen in early November. Normally most of the business of baseball doesn’t start to really kick in until the winter meetings, but those almost certainly won’t be happening due to the lockout. 

That means teams will be eager to lock up players before that, and this is happened before. The last time the CBA expired was back in 2021, and before that happened a wave of nine-figure contracts happened. 

McCullough thinks that’s going to happen again, and he listed Adrian Morejon as the top prize in this year’s relief class. Morejon is about to get paid, and he deserves to based on what he’s done for the last couple of seasons. 

Take this year’s numbers, for example. The 27-year old left-hander pitched to a 2.83 ERA with 107 strikeouts in 86 innings, which is as many as some fourth and fifth starters had. He wasn’t quite as successful when he was plugged in to close for Mason Miller, as Morejon had five blowns saves to go with three saves. 

No matter. According to Dennis Lin of The Athletic, the comp for Morejon contract-wise is Tanner Scott, who got a four-year, $72 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

But this is where the frenzy enters the picture. Lin added that it wouldn’t be totally surprising to see Morejon get one of those nine-figure deals, which would compound San Diego’s payroll issues if anything close to the current system gets maintained. 

Morejon was the subject of trade rumors at the deadline, and after it passed GM A.J. Preller said he couldn’t imagine the Padres bullpen without Morejon. 

Now he may be tested on that statement. Morejone is the linchpin of a great bullpen, and he’s going to be expensive to keep. If the Padres don’t, though, they may have an even bigger problem on their hands.