Did the Padres make the right decision re-signing Michael King?
The San Diego Padres are seeking starting pitching this offseason after the losses of right-handers Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish.
Cease signed a massive seven-year, $210 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this month and Darvish underwent ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction surgery and will miss the entirety of the 2026 season.
Even with Joe Musgrove expected to return to the rotation after his own bout with Tommy John surgery, San Diego is lacking starting pitching depth. Many around the league believed that because right-hander Michael King opted to test free agency that he would sign elsewhere.
Fortunately for Padres fans, the team agreed to terms on a three-year, $75 million contract with King that includes opt-outs after the first and second seasons.
Since King transitioned into a starter for the Padres in 2024, he has been one of the nastiest pitchers on the planet when healthy. He made 31 appearances (30 starts) and went 13-9 with a 2.95 ERA and 1.19 WHIP across 173.2 innings, striking out 201 batters.
His 2025 season was shortened due to injury, but in his 15 regular season starts, King was 5-3 with a 3.44 ERA and 1.20 WHIP across 73.1 innings.
ESPN graded the signing as a ‘C+’ but noted that the Padres needed to make this move.
“He also missed half the 2022 season with a fractured elbow, and while his injury history is far from unusual for a 21st-century pitcher, it's worth keeping in mind,” ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle wrote Thursday. “The flip side of the IL stints is this: For a pitcher King's age, with a baseline performance of something like a 135 to 140 ERA+, he doesn't have that much mileage on him.
“King was a solid candidate for a multiyear deal in the average annual value range in the neighborhood of what the Padres offered. But the structure puts most of the benefits in King's court. The first year of the deal reportedly pays out at $22 million, the amount of the qualifying offer the Padres gave him which attached a draft pick penalty to any team signing him other than San Diego. The last two years, then, are worth $53 million unless King opts out. If he gives San Diego a full, productive season, that seems like a good bet. If he doesn't, then he's fine -- he won't opt out and the Padres have to hope that whatever went wrong doesn't linger.”
This deal is a win for King even if he doesn’t put together a full season. For what he has been able to accomplish in a Padres uniform in such a short time, the contract is worth it from San Diego’s perspective.