Left-hander just wrapped up the best season of his major league career, at least so far. He had appeared in each of the seasons from 2019 to 2023 but never reached Jake Cronenworth Jersey 35 innings pitched in any of those. In 2024, he made 60 relief appearances, logging 63 2/3 frames. He allowed 2.83 earned runs per nine innings in that time. His 26.1% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate and 51.4% ground ball rate were all better than league averages. He added another two appearances in the postseason. Now the Padres and Morejn will have to decide whats next. The southpaw came up as a starting pitching prospect and was highly regarded as a minor leaguer. The Cuban lefty secured an $11MM signing bonus from the Padres in 2016, before the league introduced the hard-capped international amateur spending system that currently exists. considered him one of the top 100 prospects in the league from 2017 to 2021, with Morejn getting as high as #52 going into 2019. But his trajectory slowed down since that peak of his prospect hype, largely due to injuries. In 2019, he made his major league debut but mi sed time due to a shoulder impingement. The 2020 season was shortened by the pandemic and there were no minor league games, limiting him to just nine appearances and le s than 20 innings that year. In 2021, he required Tommy John surgery after just two starts. He was off the injured list by June of 2022 but mi sed time in the second half of that year due to shoulder inflammation. In 2023, he spent time on the IL due to a left elbow sprain and right knee inflammation, limiting him to just nine major league innings and le s than 30 on the farm. With all of those injuries, the Padres understandably kept him in a relief role this year. As mentioned up top, he stayed healthy and thrived in the bullpen. Based on the way the past few years went, the club might be tempted to just keep Morejn in the bullpen. With set to reach free agency, Morejn arguably projects as the clubs best southpaw reliever for 2025, ahead of and . But theres upside to considering the alternative, with being a best-case scenario example of whats po sible. Like Morejn, Crochet was a top prospect who had spent the early parts of his career either hurt or pitching in relief. The White Sox stretched him out for a rotation role in 2024 with fantastic results, as he posted a 3.58 ERA over 146 innings. Even those numbers sell him short, as that clubs poor defense seemingly contributed to a .318 batting average on balls in play for Crochet this year. He struck out 35.1% of batters faced, limited walks to a 5.5% clip and got grounders on 45.1% of balls in play. If it werent for that high BABIP, he probably would have kept some more runs off the board, which is why his 2.69 FIP and 2.53 SIERA were far better than his ERA. Thats not to say that the Padres should consider such a performance from Morejn to be likely, but it demonstrates the proverbial pot of gold they could chase. Crochet is now a borderline ace and he will likely be the top trade candidate of this offseason, with the White Sox looking at bringing back a kings ransom in terms of young prospects. Morejn threw five different pitches in 2024, suggesting theres potentially still a starters repertoire in there, without him relying on any one pitch too much. His sinker, slider and four-seamer were all thrown between 23 and 36% of the time, while he also sprinkled in a splitter 7.6% of the time and a sweeper at a 2.6% clip. That helped him avoid the extreme splits that can often doom a pitcher to a specialized relief role. Lefties hit .255/.303/.367 off Morejn this year while righties were only slightly better at .257/.321/.405. Due to Morejn spending so much time on the IL, he has managed to accrue more than four years of major league service time. That means that, despite his limited track record, hes slated for free agency after 2026. But the mi sed time has also prevented him from increasing his earning power. He made $850K this year, barely above the $740K league minimum. projects him for a modest bump to $1.8MM in 2025. Hed be able to secure one more arbitration raise for 2026 before hitting the open market. That price point is important for the Padres. Due in part to the collapse of their broadcast deal with Diamond Sports Group, the club had to cut the payroll last winter. They flipped to the Yankees to help them duck under the competitive balance tax while also adding some needed starting pitching depth. Starting pitching is again a concern for the Friars going into 2025, with the recent news that is set to mi s all of next year recovering from Tommy John surgery. , and give the club a strong front three but they have question marks at the back end. had a 3.71 ERA in the first half but an ugly 8.10 ERA in the second half. had a 4.87 ERA this year but with a tepid 14.4% strikeout rate and he also had an 8.21 ERA in his Triple-A starts. Musgrove will hopefully be back by 2026 but King and Cease are both slated for free agency after 2025, meaning theres even le s certainty in the future. Improving the rotation will undoubtedly be a focus for president of baseball operations A.J. Preller this winter but the budget might again be an i sue. The Friars already have an estimated $231MM CBT number for next year, according to , just shy of next years $241MM base threshold. A suming the club wants to avoid the tax again in 2025, that doesnt give Preller a lot to work with and even back-end starters often get eight-figure deals in free agency. Last winter, got $13MM on a one-year deal, got $11MM, and each got $8.5MM while got $8MM. In addition to filling out the rotation, Preller will be looking to replace lost offensive production. Each of , , , and are slated to reach free agency, putting some notable dents in the lineup. Given the clubs tight budget and long to-do list, it would be a great solution if Morejn could become a starter next year. That would be far cheaper than filling a rotation spot via the open market. Theres also the trade market but the Padres have sent out a lot of prospects in recent years and would probably love to avoid doing more of that, if po sible. But despite all the attraction of Morejn jumping into the rotation, theres also the risk of another injury cropping up. In that scenario, its entirely po sible that the Padres fall short of upgrading the rotation and also subtract a key lefty from the bullpen mix. What do you think the Padres should do? Give him a shot at the rotation or stick with whats working? Have your say in the poll below! Where should the Padres put Adrin Morejn in 2025? Bullpen 52.28% (824votes) Rotation 47.72% (752votes) Total Votes: 1,576 Nelson Cruz Jersey