Morejon leaves game with an arm injury

A sweep in Texas came with an unfortunate arm injury to Adrian Morejon. What will the Padres do with his spot in the rotation?

The good news is that the San Diego Padres took care of business against the Texas Rangers, pitching and hitting their way to a 3-0 road sweep, and that the next team they face might be even worse than the one they just swept.

The bad news is whatever happened to Adrian Morejon’s elbow/forearm during Sunday’s start.

A lucky break?

To be fair to everything else I could be saying here, we don’t know what the prognosis is yet. All we know is that Morejon threw a pitch, stepped off the mound with tears in his eyes, and was walked off with what was later dubbed an “elbow/forearm strain” and a promise of MRI results later.

Morejon’s potential is still through the roof and he’s still very young, but I think we should all be prepared to hear that he’s out for the rest of the season. That would be devastating news, just as it usually is when an elite prospect goes down with a major injury, but it may have come at a lucky time for the Padres.

The next time Morejon would be scheduled to pitch would be on Friday at Petco Park against the hated Los Angeles Dodgers. Before that game, the team was already going to have to deal with a surplus of arms for the rotation, meaning Padres manager Jayce Tingler has options for that Friday start:

Dinelson Lamet

Lamet is supposedly ready to go in the upcoming Pirates series, but the Padres could hold him out and ask him to open up the game against the Dodgers on Friday.

Ryan Weathers

The last time Weathers pitched was on Saturday, where he threw 2 innings. If the team wanted to stick him in that #5 spot and figure out the rest when Lamet is stretched out, they could.

My favorite option is probably some combination of these first two, with Lamet opening and then Weathers coming in to eat up some innings after. And then there’s the most likely option…

Chris Paddack

This one’s not fun but makes some sense.

Joe Musgrove could use an extra day off after pitching well beyond what his arm was ready for during Friday’s no-hitter. The team could use Lamet in his spot, Wednesday in Pittsburgh, and also bump Paddack back a day from Thursday to Friday.

MacKenzie Gore

Including this just because I’ve already seen people talking about it.

First, I don’t think Gore is ready to pitch in the majors. His stuff is there but the control is not.

Second, I don’t think we want his first MLB appearance to be in a start against the Dodgers. Hell, this would be the first time he’s pitching in a game since 2019. Throwing him to the Dodgers seems like asking for trouble.

Quick series preview: Padres at Pirates

The Pirates are 3-6 this season and are already owners of a 6-game losing streak, and they come into this series against San Diego with a 2-game winning streak.

Pittsburgh got battered by the Reds but showed some life against the Cubs, winning their last two games by a combined score of 15-3. My hope is that’s more of a commentary on the Cubs than the Pirates, and that if the Padres pitchers avoid giving up a HR to Adam Frazier or Phillip Evans we’ll be fine.

Despite a four-game series, the Padres are fortunately missing the best starting pitcher in the Pittsburgh rotation. Their bullpen, like their lineup, is top-heavy. Outside of closer Richard Rodriguez, every pitcher on the bump against San Diego will likely be struggling to put up zeros.

With two series against the Dodgers coming up fast, the Padres need to win this 4-game series and likely will.