San Diego Padres free agent reliever Adrian Morejon was easily one of the best relievers in baseball last season in a bullpen that was easily one of the best in the sport. The relievers ate up the fourth-most innings in MLB last season, but accounted for an ERA of just 3.53, the fifth-lowest in the show.

According to MLB Trade Rumors insider Darragh McDonald, the Los Angeles Dodgers will make a play to try and break up the band and add the southpaw to their opulent roster.

Mason Miller rightfully collected most of the attention due to his 101.4 mph average fastball and finishing the season with the most saves in the National League (38) to go along with a 1.67 ERA, but Morejon has somewhat quietly been one of the most effective hurlers in recent years.

In 2026, Morejon proved why he is such a sought-after arm, ranking in the 99th percentile across MLB in getting batters to chase outside of the strike zone (38.6% of the time) and limiting barrels (just 2.8%). He was also in the 97th percentile in swing-and-miss rate, getting batters to swing at air 34.2% of the time, second only to Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski (among 178 pitchers who dealt more than 80 innings).

The MLB Trade Rumors team detailed why Morejon is projected to make as much money as he will (after already being offered a $23.15 million qualifying offer from the Padres he is expected to turn down), and how past similar contracts led McDonald to believe Morejon will end up in LA.

"Beyond his sheer dominance, Morejon is one of the market’s youngest free agents," McDonald, Steve Adams and Anthony Franco wrote. "He won’t turn 28 until February. Teams are buying two to three more prime seasons with him than they would a more standard free agent who’s entering his age-30 or age-31 season.

"There are only eight relievers in the past decade to sign free agent contracts of four or more years with annual values north of $10MM. Morejon seems like a near-lock to be the ninth. He’s younger than Edwin Diaz was when Díaz signed for five years and $102MM, and he’s better than Tanner Scott was when he signed for four years and $72MM. A five-year deal that pays Morejon in excess of $15MM annually is distinctly possible."

A long-term deal is something the Padres will likely offer assuming Morejon doesn't become only the 19th player in MLB history to accept a qualifying offer, but perhaps McDonald linked him to LA because they are the team that snatched up Scott and Diaz the last two seasons.

Similar to the Padres, the Dodgers bullpen showed weak spots in the postseason, but in the regular season, LA saw atrocious outputs from Scott in 2025 and Diaz in 2026. The inconsistency alone may be enough of a reason for McDonald to link Morejon to the divisional rivals.

For what it's worth, after the Padres were eliminated in the National League Division Series, Morejon spoke about his desire to return.

When asked if he wants to come back in 2027, he bluntly replied “everybody knows that" he wants to.

“I feel sad because I don’t want to say goodbye,” he added. “But it’s business, and let’s see what happens during the offseason.”

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