The San Diego Padres had one of the best bullpens in baseball over the course of the regular season, but one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle is not only a free agent, but expected to get one of the biggest pitching contracts this offseason. Adrian Morejon, a 27-year-old left-hander, is coming off another effective season with an ERA of 2.83, but is expected to be paid like a top reliever because of his resume and age.

In other news, rookie catcher Ethan Salas had another impressive year in the Padres' farm system, leading to his call-up in September. Though the backstop showed tons of potential in his short sample size at the major league level — both offensively and defensively — president of baseball operations AJ Preller appeared to pump the brakes on handing the rookie the title of starting catcher moving forward.

“I don’t think anybody’s going to be guaranteed anything,” Preller said. “For Ethan, for example, it’s going to be a competition-type situation for him. He showed he can compete at the big league level.”

Finally, a few free agent contract predictions have been revealed from the aforementioned dominant bullpen.

It is no question that the starting pitching rotation will essentially have to be rebuilt over the offseason, but the bullpen had the opposite issue over the regular season. They displayed their elite nature day-in and day-out, but their overuse over the grind of a long MLB season showed itself in October.

One of the biggest puzzles that Preller is going to have to assemble this offseason deals with how the payroll will look come 2027. If money is allocated on one area of the team, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be taken away from another. However, when it comes to the starting pitching/bullpen productions, perhaps the final pricetag after the offseason will reveal where the front office's priorities were over the winter.

Here’s all the latest Padres news and stories (click the headline for the full article):

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