The Padres have plenty to sort out in their rotation this offseason, but one decision stands out as the most straightforward one on the board: keeping Michael King in San Diego.
King is among the pitchers set to hit the market, assuming he opts out of the final two years and $58 million left on his deal. And according to Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter, that opt-out is coming, because King would move right into the upper tier of available starters.
"King can opt out of his final two years and $58 million of his contract this winter. He almost certainly will since he would immediately slot in as the No. 2 starter on the market behind Tarik Skubal," Reuter writes.
That leaves the Padres with a real choice, even if the path feels pretty clear. If King reaches free agency, he figures to draw major interest from contenders with money to spend. But Reuter is projecting San Diego to bring him back on a new deal anyway, and the case for that starts with what King just did in October.
In three postseason games this year, including a relief outing on one day’s rest after a Game 2 start, King posted a 0.64 ERA. He picked up one win and one save while striking out 15 batters across 14 innings.
His regular season was strong, too. King finished with a 3.21 ERA and 4.3 bWAR, which was the best mark of his MLB career so far.
He’ll be 32 next season, and Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report believes that age won’t stop the bidding from getting serious. Miller said King "should have no problem whatsoever fetching nine figures on a five-year deal."
In other words, $100 million over five years is the floor in Miller’s view. For a pitcher who just turned in the kind of year King did, that kind of contract would not be out of line.
So while the Padres have several rotation questions hanging over their offseason, this one feels the cleanest: if King opts out, the expectation is that San Diego will try to keep him, and Reuter is predicting that’s exactly how this plays out.
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