SAN DIEGO -- David Morgan was too young to know about Trevor Hoffman’s journey to the bullpen. When Morgan fell in love with the Padres as a kid growing up in Southern California, Hoffman was already a lights-out closer, one of the best of all-time. Morgan knew nothing of the path Hoffman took to get there.
Until Morgan embarked on a similar path himself. Like Hoffman, Morgan had never pitched in his life. Like Hoffman, Morgan always had a pretty excellent arm at shortstop. Like Hoffman, someone sagely decided it’d probably be better to see how that arm might play on a mound.
Which is not to equate newly recalled Padres prospect Morgan to Hall of Famer Hoffman. It’s just to say that when Morgan came running out of Petco Park’s left-center-field bullpen gate for his big league debut on Monday night, well, it was pretty darn cool.
“It reminded me of watching him,” Morgan said.
Morgan’s family moved to Orange County when he was young. But his parents grew up in San Diego and remained staunch Padres fans. A few times each year, the family would make the drive down I-5 to Petco Park.
Even as a position player, Morgan’s favorite players growing up were Hoffman and Jake Peavy. The first time he met Hoffman, he was 4 years old. There’s a family photo to commemorate it. He didn’t meet Peavy until this past weekend in Atlanta, shortly after his callup.
Morgan spent a week on the big league roster earlier in the season without appearing in a game, then another day in Atlanta on Sunday, before he finally made his debut on Monday. That he did so at Petco Park -- running out of the same bullpen that his two favorite pitchers once commanded -- was fitting.
“When I’m sitting in it, before I go pitch, that’s when I think about that,” Morgan said. “Obviously when my name gets called, it’s game time.”
Morgan is off to a nice start, too. He surrendered a homer to the first hitter he faced in Wednesday’s loss, but responded to strike out three straight. In the Padres’ comeback victory over the Marlins on Monday, he was called upon in a one-run game in the eighth inning. He threw six pitches and recorded two outs. All three of his fastballs clocked 99 mph.
That heater is what drew Morgan to the mound in the first place. He was playing NAIA ball at Hope International University when he began the transition.
“My coach kind of talked to me about the reality of getting drafted out of a small school like that as a hitter, and how hard that is to do,” Morgan recalled. “He told me, ‘You have a better chance to get drafted if you show you can throw off the mound, too.’”
In his first appearance on the mound since Little League, Morgan’s fastball clocked in at 95-97 mph. But a thumb injury he sustained while running the bases -- yes, he was still hitting and playing center field at the time -- limited him to all of 9 1/3 innings that season.
Morgan went undrafted in 2022. But a week before that Draft, the Padres asked him to work out with a handful of prospects at Petco Park. Team evaluators came away impressed. Morgan had offers from other teams, including offers that would let him continue on a two-way path.
The Padres wanted him on the mound. And Morgan wanted to be a Padre. Shortly thereafter, he signed with his childhood club, and his journey as a pitcher truly began.
“It was weird,” Morgan said. “It was definitely not an easy transition. You do one thing your whole life, and you dream about making it here as a shortstop or a center fielder. And obviously that wasn’t going to happen.
“Coming into it, I was nervous. I showed up on Day One, and kind of didn’t know what I was doing. But I just kept an open mind and tried to learn.”
Day 1 wasn’t an easy one. Morgan recalled throwing a bullpen surrounded by the lifelong pitchers in his Draft class. Their velocity was the same as his -- mid-to-high 90s.
“I’m like, ‘Oh man, that’s all I have -- I don’t really have another pitch,’” Morgan said.
Eventually, he developed a slider and a curveball that played well alongside the fastball. He ascended through the Padres’ system, then struck out 30 hitters in 14 1/3 Minor League innings this season, earning his big league debut three years after his conversion to the mound.
In a ballpark he knows well.