Going into the 2026 season, the San Diego Padres had a ton of uncertainty. Their starting rotation looked tacked together, the offense looked healthy but flawed, and there were questions of depth across the board.
But that bullpen. The relief corps was, and is, the shining star of the Friars’ organization. After last year’s splurge at the Trade Deadline, closer Mason Miller headlines the group with Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Adrian Morejon, and David Morgan as high-leverage pieces. Behind them are guys like Kyle Hart, Alek Jacob, Ron Marinaccio, Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta, and rookie flamethrower Bradgley Rodriguez.
Padres Bullpen Has a Chance to Be the Team’s Greatest Strength
The ‘pen is viewed by many to be the deadliest in baseball. After sending a MLB-record three relievers to last year’s All-Star Game, they got even better this season. With Miller putting up ridiculous numbers to start the year (0.00 ERA, 0.273 WHIP, 19 Ks, 7 1/3 IP), he’s been the crown jewel of the group.
The Friars’ relievers rank seventh in ERA across the majors with a 3.13 mark across 69 innings pitched. They’ve covered more innings than any other team in the top ten, and have picked up the slack on a surprisingly solid (but volatile) rotation.
Mason Miller against the last 18 hitters he’s faced:
K, K, K, K, K, K, K, K, K, K, GO, K, K, K, K, K, K, K 🤯 pic.twitter.com/HRyh7ggNt3
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) April 11, 2026
So What’s the Problem?
You might read all that and hear that there’s nothing wrong with San Diego. They’re certainly on top of the world right now. The club has a 10-6 record that is tied for second-best in MLB as of this writing (behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers), their offense is raking, and Miller is currently on an historic scoreless streak of 28 2/3 innings.
But there’s one problem. They can be even better. Maybe that sounds a little bit greedy, and it probably is. But the Padres bullpen hasn’t looked quite like itself so far.
The biggest offenders of this issue have been the high-leverage arms of Estrada and Morejon. Estrada had a rough start to the year, giving up four runs to the Detroit Tigers during opening weekend. But since then, he has locked it down, not allowing a single earned run across 6 1/3 innings. He’s now on the 15-day injured list for San Diego with tendinitis in his throwing elbow. How long it takes for him to rehab his way back is anyone’s guess.
Morejon, on the other hand, has looked much worse. He’s had a ridiculously high 2.400 WHIP in 6 2/3 innings of work. That’s turned into nine runs (eight earned) on 15 hits, leading to a 10.80 ERA. Across the last two years, Morejon has put up a combined 2.43 ERA. If he can’t return to form, the bullpen will be in trouble in a hurry. But, at the bare minimum, Morejon is healthy and available to pitch.
Stammen’s … Interesting Bullpen Management
New manager Craig Stammen was immediately questioned by the Friar Faithful, with the Padres getting off to a 2-4 start in the opening week’s homestand. Since then, San Diego has gone 8-2, quelling a majority of the concerns about Stammen’s managing.
But his bullpen management has lost the Padres some games or has gotten them close. The most recent case was in San Diego’s Thursday night walk-off win against the Colorado Rockies. The Friars had to use five relievers to get through 12 innings.
Miller pitched the top of the ninth and struck out all three batters. Estrada pitched the 10th and 11th and gave up a run in each frame, forcing the Padres to battle back. They did, and walked it off on a Xander Bogaerts grand slam in the twelfth, but not without the cost of using all of those arms.
After the game, Stammen remarked that Miller had stated he wanted to pitch the tenth inning (and the game would have likely been over much faster), but the closer had pitched the day before, and Stammen wanted to keep his arm healthy. Instead, he went with Estrada, forcing San Diego to battle it out.
Why couldn’t Estrada pitch the ninth with nobody on the bases, and Miller come out for the 10th to punch out all three batters (thus not allowing the ghost runner to score at all)? No one, let alone Colorado, is going to be able to bunt the runner over on a 102 mph fastball from the Reaper.
The Last Word
It’s moments like that that have been cause for concern for the Friar Faithful. It hurt the Padres to start the year, but it has gotten better. And that’s what Stammen has continued to preach: he’s learning on the job and always improving.
Main Photo Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images
