If the Padres ever decide to create a baseball-themed logo to complement the irreplaceable Swingin’ Friar emblem, there’s little doubt which positional unit should be recommended to artists.

A high number of Padres reliefs corps and especially relief aces, including the current Mason Miller-led bullpen that figures to advantage San Diego (24-16) in a roadtrip that begins Tuesday in Milwaukee, have spun off high-value returns for the small-market franchise, which entered the big leagues in 1969.

Suggesting to logo artists a silhouette of Padres reliever trotting in from the bullpen, then, wouldn’t be out of place.

Few if any crowds get more excited over the home team’s closer entering game than in San Diego, where bullpens tend to provide outsized relief.

Several Padres relievers who came to San Diego as relative no-names turned into late-inning bullies. They buoyed their teammates and a fan base that hasn’t seen many high-powered offenses wear the “SD” cap.

In any environment, many Padres relief stars, among them a trio of Hall of Famers, a Cy Young winner and now Miller, would’ve thrived.

San Diego’s reliever-friendly atmospherics helped out, too.

If prone to frustrating many Padres sluggers, the region’s cooler night-time air and coastal marine blanket have served as a second-best friend to many Padres relievers beyond their pitching excellence.

Whether the locale was Mission Valley or the East Village, many batted balls didn’t go as far as they do elsewhere.

Petco Park played much larger early on.

A lights-out Padres bullpen delivered a 2010 season that, while not very entertaining as a whole, led Padres then-GM Jed Hoyer to grade it as superior to any relief season he’d been around. The comparison included World Series winners in Chicago and Boston.

In this era, Padres home conditions, while generally helpful to pitchers, don’t provide such a pronounced edge.

A.J. Preller, like Kevin Towers in the 1990s and 2000s, knows how to assemble powerful bullpens.

Last year’s Preller-built group began with a 34-game run of dominance that likely would’ve worked in high-altitude Denver. No other big league bullpen kept up. Fueling a 23-11 start, Padres relievers launched the team toward 90 wins and a wild-card playoff berth.

But in that playoff series, Miller and mates couldn’t overcome the Padres’ insufficient hitting

While this year’s bullpen hasn’t matched that white-hot start, the team’s .600 win rate owes more to the relief corps leading the majors in win shares, than any other positional unit..

Miller belongs in his own category.

Since Preller got him last summer in a trade with the Athletics, the right-hander has led all relievers in win shares, strikeout rate and average fastball velocity. He’s tied with Raisel Iglesias of the Braves in win probability added, a stat respected by MLB front offices. Miller’s 0.86 ERA in 42 innings trails only Cuban power pitchers Iglesias (0.26, 34 1/3 innings) and lefty Aroldis Chapman of the Yankees (0.84, 32 innings).

Around Miller, 27, the bullpen has improved in recent weeks. It regained Jason Adam and an improved Jeremiah Estrada, while lefty Adrián Morejón continued to provide triple-digit heat, if less dominance than last year.

With Miller unavailable Sunday, others shone.

Contributing four scoreless innings to the 3-2, 10-inning victory, Ron Marinaccio, Bradgley Rodriguez, Estrada and Morejón shut down Cardinals hitters.

“A lot of those guys would probably be closers,” manager Craig Stammen said. “And the way Ron pitched, he could close for some teams, too.

“We’ve just got a lot of good guys down there that we can trust in the bullpen,” Stammen said. “It’s very comforting in close games like that.”

This is also true: a bullpen can do only so much.

The Padres won’t get near a trophy, unless their hitting improves a lot.

But the expanded playoff format accentuates a fast start to the season, as does Preller’s track record of improving playoff-contending Padres teams via summer trade acquisitions. Led by a bullpen that trails only the Dodgers in fielding independent ERA, the Padres have overcome ultra-sporadic hitting and put heat on rival players and front offices to play catch-up in the wild-card race.

Bullpens are notoriously volatile, and can burn out.

Preller sees the long game. He has bolstered several bullpen with in-season trades. Tanner Scott and Adam sparkled often after joining the Padres in 2024. Adapting fast, Miller allowed no runs in 21 of 22 regular-season games and struck out eight of nine Cubs in the playoffs.

I don’t love seeing bullpens’ ever-increasing importance in baseball.

But the era is the era.

Among the relief-savvy franchises, the Padres belong high on the list.

Preller counts Hoffman among his advisers, as he did Stammen, the ex-reliever he installed as manager last offseason.

If the Padres someday win the trophy, expect the feat to spell r-e-l-i-e-f twice over.