Michael King exceeded expectations with his brilliant postseason performance, outshining every other San Diego Padres pitcher. He demonstrated how a No. 1 starter should perform in the clutch.
The organization cannot let King opt-out and leave via free agency; they need to sign him to a long-term deal.
King proved his worth
As the Friars enter the offseason, their top priority remains unchanged: building a starting rotation that can get them back to October baseball. They need to pair King with another starter who profiles
as a middle or back-end rotation candidate.
The Padres’ first-half struggles stemmed from a lack of starting pitching depth. King’s anguish on the mound compounded the issue. In his case, it might have been a combination of poor command and bad luck.
If the club kept losing, his future in San Diego would have become murky. Contending teams were poised to target King as a trade candidate at the deadline.
Instead, he bounced back and became the team’s best starter down the stretch.
The evolution of an ace
After an injury-plagued 2025 season, the right-hander posted a 12-10 record with a 3.21 ERA in 32 starts and stayed healthy all summer. But unexpectedly, King blew past his projected workload.
He threw a career-high 185.0 innings this season, surpassing his previous career mark of 173.2 innings pitched, a feat bound to raise eyebrows in today’s analytics-driven baseball. But to capture a postseason berth, a team’s ace is expected to shatter his innings projections.
Since Aug. 1, his starts (7-3 with a 2.87 ERA) have felt different, bordering on dominance. King’s velocity looked a tick higher; he showed excellent control with the four-seamer, sinker, changeup and sweeper.
The sweeper was his worst pitch in the first half, but it became King’s go-to pitch in the late-season turnaround. Opponents quickly learned he knows how to pitch. The right-hander takes a mental inventory of his repertoire to identify what pitches are working best to record outs. It helps to limit potential scoring opportunities.
Playoff supremacy
With the pitching staff in dire straits, King made himself available to work out of the bullpen as the Padres trailed 0-2 in the National League Division Series. No other starter in the rotation had a proven track record as a reliever.
Coming out of the bullpen, King threw all of his pitches in the mid-90s to secure a Game 3 victory. His work was nothing short of brilliance (1.29 ERA in the NLDS), cementing him as one of the sport’s top arms.
San Diego has a perfect opportunity to lock King down for the foreseeable future. His 2026 performance proved his worth to the franchise.
