{"id":357641,"date":"2025-12-19T05:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357641\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T05:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:34:10","slug":"mlb-free-agency-michael-king-returns-to-padres-on-three-year-deal-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357641\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB free agency: Michael King returns to Padres on three-year deal, per report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"king-getty-1.png\"<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

One of the offseason’s top free-agent starters is heading back to San Diego. Right-hander Michael King<\/a> and the\u00a0Padres<\/a>\u00a0have agreed to a three-year contract worth $75 million, reports MLB.com<\/a>. King can opt out after 2026 and 2027. The team has not yet announced the signing. Here’s the salary breakdown:<\/p>\n

2026: $5M salary and $12 million signing bonus2027: $28 million salary ($5 million buyout if opt out is used)2028: $30 million salary (no buyout if opt out is used)<\/p>\n

King, 30, spent the last two years with the Padres after coming over from the New York Yankees<\/a> in the Juan Soto<\/a> trade. In 2024, King struck out 201 batters and had a 2.95 ERA in 173 \u2154 innings, which earned him a seventh place finish in the Cy Young voting. Shoulder and knee injuries limited him to 73 \u2153 innings with a 3.44 ERA in 2025. <\/p>\n

We ranked King as the 17th-best free agent available this offseason<\/a>, and the sixth-best free-agent starting pitcher. Here’s the write-up: <\/p>\n

The book on King hasn’t changed much over the years, even if his role has shifted this way and that a few times. He has a quality arsenal built on horizontal movement, and an undeniable track record of being a plus performer. Unfortunately, he’s a high injury risk who has topped 75 innings twice to date. There’s no harm rolling the dice, but one should be realistic about the expected outcome.\u00a0 \t<\/p>\n

King is something of the ideal modern pitcher, one with an extreme east\/west pitching attack (i.e. sinkers and sweepers) but also an analytics-friendly four-seam fastball. He also has plenty of experience as both a starter and reliever, including as a multi-inning setup man familiar with high-leverage situations. Come postseason time, King has the versatility to help his team in any capacity. <\/p>\n

The Padres made King the $22.025 million qualifying offer last month, which he rejected. They will neither gain nor forfeit a draft pick to re-sign him. Being attached to draft pick compensation may have hurt King’s market, leading to him taking what amounts to a one-year contract with insurance policies for 2027 and 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images One of the offseason’s top free-agent starters is heading back to San Diego. Right-hander Michael King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,6102,591,48937,2704,1189,85,195655],"class_list":["post-357641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-michael-king","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-free-agency","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-starting-pitching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}