Michael King is going back to the San Diego Padres. How long he stays there is completely up to him.<\/p>\n
The standout pitcher has agreed to a three-year, $75 million contract with the Padres in free agency, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand<\/a>. The deal reportedly contains a $12 million signing bonus, a 2026 salary of $5 million, a $28 million player option for 2027 (with a $5 million buyout) and a $30 million player option for 2028.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n So this could effectively be a one-year, $22 million contract, a two-year, $45 million contract or a three-year $75 million deal. It just depends on if King performs well enough to desire another foray into free agency.<\/p>\n Yahoo Sports had King ranked as this offseason’s No. 19 free agent<\/a>.<\/p>\n King was on track to sign a contract much bigger than that after the 2024 season, in which he posted a 2.95 ERA and 200 strikeouts in 173 2\/3 innings. The Padres acquired him in the Juan Soto deal and converted him into a full-time starter, with the gambit paying off.<\/p>\n However, 2025 was less kind for King. He went down with shoulder inflammation in May, then hit the injured list again with a knee injury after his first start back in August, ultimately posting only 73 1\/3 innings in his contract year.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n MLB teams were likely wary of committing long-term money to a pitcher who turns 31 in May and has only one full season as a starting pitcher under his belt, even if it was a very good season.<\/p>\n King’s return is still a boon for the Padres, who entered this offseason with massive questions in their rotation behind top starter Nick Pivetta. Workhorse Dylan Cease has already left the team for a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>. Yu Darvish will miss all of 2026 after undergoing elbow surgery<\/a>. Joe Musgrove will be making his return from Tommy John surgery and might not be able to pitch a full season. Randy V\u00e1squez’s 2025 was solid on the surface but nearly every peripheral number screams regression to a level San Diego won’t like.<\/p>\n There aren’t many good options after that group. For a team still trying to compete with the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, that’s a lot of problems to have. The King deal gives the Padres the kind of pitcher they sorely need, even if it might end up just being for another year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael King is going back to the San Diego Padres. How long he stays there is completely up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,3895,6108,195738,1829,1187,6102,591,116268,5886,1189,85,195737,195736,5161,41441],"class_list":["post-357806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-contract","tag-dylan-cease","tag-joe-musgrove","tag-juan-soto","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-michael-king","tag-mlb","tag-nick-pivetta","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-standout-pitcher","tag-the-san-diego-union-tribune","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-yu-darvish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357806","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=357806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}