Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Los Angeles Dodgers are linked to the top relief pitcher on the free agent market.
Just like in offseasons past, when the Dodgers nabbed Edwin Díaz from the New York Mets and Tanner Scott from the San Diego Padres, L.A. is once again considered the team to beat for the best reliever on the open market.
In its ranking of the top 50 MLB free agents, the writing team at MLB Trade Rumors is predicting where the game’s top free agents will land in the coming weeks.
Steve Adams, Anthony Franco, and Darragh McDonald went player by player to highlight their strengths, weaknesses and predict which jersey they’ll be wearing when (and if) the 2027 MLB season begins.
While Dodgers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal is considered the gem of the offseason, there are some other big name players in free agency.
Among them, widely considered to be the top reliever on the market, is San Diego Padres left-handed pitcher Adrián Morejón.
The 8th overall free agent on the list, Morejón is described by MLB Trade Rumors as one of the game’s ten best relievers who just completed arguably his best campaign in the bigs with his third-straight sub-3.00 ERA season.
“Morejón finished out the 2026 season with 86 innings — third-most among all relievers in baseball,” the team writes. “He’s accustomed to pitching multiple innings in high-leverage spots. Twenty-five of Morejón’s 76 appearances this year saw him record four or more outs.”
His 2026 season in particular was “borderline comical” with his Statcast page painting a picture of sheer brilliance.
“He ranks in the 90th percentile or better in each of opponents’ average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, barrel rate, ground-ball rate, whiff rate, chase rate and ‘expected’ batting average. Morejón’s 2.33 expected ERA ranked in the 99th percentile of big leaguers.”
In eight years with the Padres, Morejón’s regular season stats look like this: 3.26 ERA and a 2.37 FIP. He’s given up 262 hits and walked 89 batters across 298.1 innings pitched. His combined ERA over the past three seasons is a ridiculous 2.58 in 211 appearances.
In addition to being one of the most dominant arms in the league, Morejón is also going to benefit significantly on the open market due to his age. He’ll turn 28 in February, and teams could end up squeezing additional prime years out of him versus your typical free agent reliever option.
Morejón to Dodgers follows a growing trend
MLB Trade Rumors notes that only eight relievers in the past decade have signed free agent contracts of at least four years worth more than $10 million annually. Two of them are the aforementioned Díaz and Scott.
“He’s younger than Edwin Díaz 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 Morejón in excess of $15MM annually is distinctly possible,” they write.
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That line of logic leads directly to the Dodgers who, for better or worse, have proven a willingness to invest major money on the game’s top bullpen arms—to mixed results.
- It’s also worth noting that Baseball America has Morejón penciled in as a potential starter—and the Dodgers love a ‘tweener.
But would Andrew Friedman do it again despite the struggles of the once-prized Díaz and Scott? Is there no limit to what the team is willing to spend to win? Is the team even on solid enough financial ground to make a significant investment on a reliever?
It’s hard to say. This is the least amount of clarity we’ve had about the Dodgers and their offseason plan in probably a decade or longer.
There’s also the little issue about his qualifying offer. The Padres don’t want Morejón to leave for nothing, and the team tendered a QO to Morejón that would pay him upwards of $23 million next season. He has until Nov. 17 to accept the offer, or deny it and become an unrestricted free agent. Whichever team ultimately signs him would have to fork out some draft pick compensation to get the deal done.
Regardless of whether or not the Dodgers are willing to forfeit picks and break the bank on a reliever for the third straight offseason, the team will have to compete for the services of Morejón if they decide to do so.
Both Steve Adams and Anthony Franco have penciled in Morejón to the Chicago Cubs. But Darragh McDonald is betting the Dodgers make a grand gesture to bring him north to L.A. He could also, of course, return to San Diego.
The Dodgers could decide to play it conservatively with their bullpen for once, allowing for its surplus of young ‘tweener pitchers to compete for a consistent relief role. Or, and potentially the most likely scenario, Friedman could go all-in and bringing back relievers Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips back into the fold.
The MLB Trade Rumors gang was unanimous in their prediction that Vesia (the No. 27 free agent) would return to L.A., while Adams and Darragh both predicted Phillips (No. 29) would also be back, both with big pay raises.
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