Why the Padres Still Believe in Often-Injured Pitcher's Potential

The San Diego Padres haven’t given up on pitcher Adrian Morejon, who received an $11 million signing bonus as an international amateur in 2016. Since then he’s fallen down the depth chart amid a bevy of injuries.

Morejon, who the Padres signed at just 17 years old, has been unable to stay healthy throughout his career. He's had Tommy John surgery and an elbow sprain, but mostly has lacked consistent playing time when healthy, hindering his development. 

Morejon is 25 and healthy, and Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla believes injuries have been the main factor standing in the way of Morejon's devlopment.

“I think the injury problems, once you start taking away the actual pitching time, it’s like he’s still a young guy with a fresh arm per se, as far as innings and workload are concerned. So getting him into a little bit of a groove is the goal right now, to be able to get some sort of consistency. We were able to do that in (20)22 where he stayed healthy all year. Then last year, the leg injury happened.”

– Ruben Niebla, via Bryce Miller of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Morejon told Miller through an interpreter that he feels more pressure from himself than the organization to live up to his contract bonus.

"Any time I’ve had an injury, they’ve shown faith in me, confidence in me that I’d be able to get back."

— Adrian Morejon, via Bryce Miller of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In 50 major league games across five seasons, Morejon has recorded a 5.28 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. What the Padres are looking to do is build off his 2022 season, when he saw the most major league action of his career. That year, Morejon had a 4.24 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. 

He'll need to stay healthy, but Morejon does have the potential on paper to do better.