Two flamethrowing rookie relievers bring life to the Padres’ bullpen

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Amidst a skid in the bullpen, San Diego hopes that two hard-throwing arms can revive the group’s dominance.

Since the 2024 trade deadline, the Padres’ bullpen group has been regarded as one of the strongest units in the game. That’s why it’s considerably impressive that San Diego’s farm system also boasts a load of relief prospects with high potential. On Saturday, the Padres’ No. 14 prospect Bradgley Rodriguez debuted, just days after David Morgan made his debut as well.

Rodriguez and Morgan have currently taken the previous spot of Alek Jacob, who was optioned following the Atlanta series. San Diego made room for Rodriguez by optioning Kyle Hart after his start on Wednesday.

What does David Morgan bring to the table?

Morgan, 25, features an electrifying three-pitch mix of a fastball, slider, and curveball from the right side. His fastball has topped out at 100.0 mph, and it regularly sits between 98-99. With a healthy 16.8 inches of induced vertical break, the offering has some serious life to it, recording a 112 Stuff+ on Monday. This season in the minors, he threw it over 55% of the time, classifying it as a true workhorse pitch.

He tunnels a gyro slider off of his lively fastball. His slider impressively sits in the 88-90 mph range, with a good deal of horizontal dive that pairs well with his curveball that dives farther. In terms of strikeouts, his slider was his go-to two-strike offering. Considering his mid-5 ft release height, the slider’s vertical drop is both effective and unexpected.

Lastly, Morgan features a curveball that has served him extremely well so far in his two outings. He threw it six times in the Miami series and recorded four whiffs and three strikeouts on the pitch. With the lack of an arm-side breaking pitch, the curveball serves as his “change-of-pace” pitch, which Marlins hitters could not figure out on Wednesday.

Morgan’s dynamic trio of offerings poses a serious threat to right-handed hitters. The hope is that his curveball is effective enough to find success against left-handers as well. Morgan’s biggest issue within his profile is actually his profile. At just 6’0, Morgan only gets 6.1 feet of extension on average, which lowers his perceived velocity to 97.5 mph, from his 97.9 mph average. However, his shorter stride allows his mechanics to be sound. As a result, he can execute more breaking pitches with reliable command, while maintaining above-average movement.

What does Bradgley Rodriguez bring to the table?

Even more heat is the simple answer. Rodriguez also features a three-pitch mix, although he opts for a changeup as his go-to secondary pitch. Finally, he reserves a hard slider to righties to complete his arsenal.

Like Morgan, the fastball is the bread-and-butter in his sequences. It sits in the 97-99 mph range, with roughly 18 inches of induced vertical break, which is impressive on such a powerful offering. While his command lacked early on in his pro days, Rodriguez has really found it as of late. He’s been pounding the top half of the zone early and often, and putting himself in favorable counts.

His go-to whiff generator is the changeup. Sitting in the high 80s, the offering is extremely versatile and effective against hitters on both sides of the plate. He threw it a ton this year at Double-A and has had great results from it. At first glance, the offering appears extremely comparable to Robert Suarez’s changeup. Both of the offerings feature well above-average velocity, with incredible horizontal tumbling action. Maybe what’s more similar between the two is the indentical awkward whiffs from left-handers that the pitch generates

Lastly, the slider is used as more of a throw-in pitch to righties and fared well in the minors. Against MLB hitters, I expect he’ll stay away from the slider early on, and won’t be surprised if he shuts it down for the time being.

Rodriguez earned the rather elusive call-up straight from Double-A. While more polished options like Jackson Wolf and Reiss Knehr were available at Triple-A, San Diego chose to make a statement instead. The MLB bullpen posted an ERA north of 6.00 in the month of May. So in response, manager Mike Shildt and the front office moved the club’s top relief prospect to the big league club.

While he’s improved of late, Rodriguez’s delivery still requires a ton of effort and can cause his control to waiver at times. It will be vital for him to collect first-pitch strikes in order to be effective. However, he is a “stuff demon” after all, and is only 21 years of age with plenty of maturing to do.

Rodriguez’s first outing in the MLB went well, and reflected his profile as a pitcher well. Coming into a two-on, one-out situation, he induced a comebacker for a double play. The double play likely wouldn’t have been possible without the dart that he lasered to second base. In his next inning, he walked and hit a batter, but induced two popouts on high fastballs and locked up Oneil Cruz on a painted 3-2 fastball for his first MLB strikeout.

Conclusion

Both Morgan and Rodriguez are capable of amping up the bullpen unit, big time. While command, break, sequencing, and game management are all important as well, adding a couple of flamethrowers to a bullpen that already lights up the radar gun is certain to keep the pressure on teams that don’t see the fastball well.

To pivot off of that, the currently-in-town Pittsburgh Pirates rank well into the bottom-third of the league against fastballs. With that in mind, the implementations of Morgan and Rodriguez figure to have revolved around that notion. From that perspective, it’s very likely that both of the right-handers will see action during the remainder of the series, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise to me if they saw higher-leverage action than expected.

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