NEW YORK
Adrián Morejón is a different pitcher in 2024.
He is healthy, throwing a new(ish) pitch more than any of his other pitches and ever evolving in his role.
Coaches and others in the organization say that with maturity has come confidence.
“I think I’m comfortable,” Morejón said through interpreter Danny Sanchez. “Maybe I haven’t had as much pitching experience because of injuries the last couple of years. But I’ve still had experience around the team, around a lot of the veteran guys. So for me, it’s been a lot of learning from them, focusing on the things that I can control and working on and making adjustments.”
One of those adjustments has been developing a slider that drops more vertically than his old one and throwing it more. A lot more.
The slider is the left-hander’s most-used pitch this season. At 35 percent, he is throwing it almost twice as much as he did in any previous season. He has not thrown a single curveball, a pitch he utilized at least 13 percent of the time in each previous season.
“I think it might have been maybe a little bit of a problem as to why I wasn’t able to pitch (effectively) consistently in the past,” Morejón said. “So that was a point of emphasis with (Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla and bullpen coach Ben Fritz), focusing on my secondary pitches and finding one that might work.”
Morejón threw a sweeper more often earlier in the season but has gone with the slider because it plays better off his high-90s fastball. Hitters can’t as quickly distinguish the slider from the fastball, as he throws the slider in the high 80s and the sweeper in the low 80s.
He throws the pitch to both right-handed and left-handed hitters, and they are batting .105 (4-for-38) against it
Morejón, still just 25, spent time on the injured list last season with three different maladies and ended up throwing just nine innings in the major leagues. He has long been beset by frequent injuries and has never thrown more than 65⅓ innings combined between the minors and majors.
He has a 2.67 ERA and 32 strikeouts over 27 innings this season.
Morejón began the year as a longer reliever, getting more than six outs three times. He has recently transitioned to a higher-leverage option, working in the final three innings in close games five times in his past six appearances.
Darvish progress
Yu Darvish threw 60 pitches in the bullpen Friday afternoon. He sat down and resumed pitching twice to simulate three innings.
He said earlier in the afternoon that he felt the simulation would be sufficient ramp-up for him to be ready to have his next step be starting a game.
That return will likely come during the team’s homestand that begins Thursday, as he will throw a regular between-starts bullpen session before then.
Darvish departed his May 29 start after three innings with tightness in his left hamstring and groin area.
Profar returns
Left fielder Jurickson Profar returned to the lineup Friday against the Mets after missing one game with a flareup of patellar tendinitis in left knee.
His knee was taped above and below to help with stability. He said the plan is to focus workouts on his quadriceps.
Profar, who departed Tuesday’s game in the eighth inning, has been playing with knee discomfort since last season. He said it flared up in the past few weeks and was bad enough that he could not continue Tuesday.
It has not reached a point — and may never — where the tendon has ruptured. That would require surgery and a recovery of at least six months.
Profar, whose .324 batting average ranks third in the major leagues behind the Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. (.330) and Padres teammate Luis Arraez (.326), started 69 of the Padres’ 71 games before sitting Wednesday.
Padres manager Mike Shildt said the team will continue monitoring Profar and it is possible he will get more frequent rest going forward.
An extended absence is not something Profar said he ever considered.
“I need to play,” he said. “When I came up with Texas, I see how you play like that. Hall of Famer Adrian Beltré. Hamstring, quad, whatever grade (strain), the worst grade, he went out there and played at a high level. There is no excuse.”