MLB writer hits Padres with harsh warning about gutting their bullpen

If there’s one thing the San Diego Padres could hang their hat on last season, it was the bullpen. While the lineup went cold at times and the rotation battled inconsistency and injuries, San Diego’s relief corps quietly turned into one of the best units in baseball, finishing first in bullpen ERA at 3.06. That’s why any talk of raiding that group to fix the rotation should make Padres fans a little uneasy.

AJ Cassavell of MLB.com laid it out clearly: Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon look like starters on paper. The stuff is electric, the swing-and-miss is real, and in a video-game world you’d just stretch them out and call it a day. But in reality, both were dominant as relievers, and shifting either one into the rotation comes with a huge downside — you’re weakening a clear strength to maybe, possibly, address a weakness.

Padres’ dream to fix rotation comes with harsh bullpen warning

That risk is magnified now that Robert Suarez has hit free agency. Suddenly Miller and Morejon aren’t just luxuries. Even A.J. Preller knows the tightrope he’s walking. He put it bluntly: the Padres can’t afford to “look up and have two mediocre units” when it comes to the rotation and bullpen. In other words, turning a top-tier bullpen and shaky rotation into two middle-of-the-pack groups is not the answer.

There are other internal names being floated. David Morgan has been mentioned as a potential conversion candidate, but he’s still inexperienced on the mound and has thrived in shorter bursts. The team also brought back Kyle Hart on a one-year deal with a 2027 option, but his stuff has looked better in relief than in a starter’s workload.

To be fair, the Padres have a recent track record of getting these moves right. Michael King, Seth Lugo and Stephen Kolek all made successful transitions from relief roles to heavier workloads. That success, however, doesn’t guarantee the next experiment will work.

The message from Cassavell’s warning is simple: if the Padres are going to pull from the bullpen to fix the rotation, they’d better nail the decision. Because if they get this one wrong, they won’t just have a hole in the rotation anymore.