Top Landing Spots For Free Agent Michael King

King was the Padres’ 2025 Opening Day starter after his impressive first full season in the rotation a year earlier. Unfortunately for King and the Padres, injuries compromised any chance he had of repeating his 2024 campaign in which he went 13-9 with a 2.95 ERA.

The second-year Padre began his 2025 season on the right foot, posting a 2.59 ERA and 1.02 WHIP with 65 strikeouts in 57 2/3 innings over his first 10 starts. He looked as sharp as ever, holding batters to a .194 average with a 28.4% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate, ranking sixth in the NL with a 20.9% K-BB%.

King’s season was derailed when he landed on the injured list with a thoracic nerve issue. He missed nearly three and a half months total after a subsequent knee injury sent him to the IL again just days after returning to action. He wasn’t the same in his final five starts but still finished the year with a 3.44 ERA in 15 starts.

Free Agent Profile: Michael King

• Age in 2026: 31
• 2025 Stats: 15 GS, 73 1/3 IP, 3.44 ERA, 4.42 FIP, 24.7% K%, 8.4% BB%
• 2025 Salary: $7.75 million
• Qualifying Offer Eligible: Yes

Contract Projection

• Contract Length Expectation: 3-5 years
• Expected AAV: $23-28 million

King was one of 13 players to receive a $22.05 million qualifying offer. He’ll likely reject that in favor of securing a longer-term deal on the open market.

King’s market will be interesting to watch as free agency unfolds. His injury-abbreviated season could temper how much teams are willing to throw at him. Regardless, he should see a nice pay raise on a multi-year deal.

How long and how much remain to be seen. King could land a deal anywhere from three to five years, earning an annual salary somewhere between $23 million and as high as $28 million if his medicals check out. Spotrac values his market at around $23 million on a four-year term, but we all know what can happen as pitching-hungry front offices start bidding.

Where will King land? Here are some options.

San Diego Padres

It would certainly behoove the Padres to re-sign King to a multi-year deal. Especially if they want to keep pace with the behemoth Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and return to the postseason again in 2026.

The front of the starting rotation will be looking thin (and old) without King and fellow free agent Dylan Cease. They still have Nick Pivetta, and Joe Musgrove should return from Tommy John surgery. Both right-handers will be 33 before Opening Day, however.

Even older is 39-year-old Yu Darvish. He’s still under contract but will be out for the entirety of the 2026 season. They might even turn to fireballer closer Mason Miller and convert him back into a starter if they need rotation arms.

The Padres had the sixth-highest luxury tax payroll in 2025, at a projected $263 million. With only $182 million committed to 2026 payroll, you can expect general manager A.J. Preller to spend money on pitching this winter.

Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays came so close to winning the World Series so you can bet they’ll be reloading for another (less surprising) run in 2026. They got all the way to the final game of the season with a veteran pitching staff that was held together by duct tape and uber-rookie Trey Yesavage.

At one point it looked like the Blue Jays might have too much pitching last summer, but injuries crept up down the stretch and reaffirmed the adage that you can never have too much pitching. This offseason Toronto is losing Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt to free agency.

They do still have Kevin Gausman, who will be 35 on Opening Day, José Berríos and Shane Bieber, who surprised everyone by opting into his $16 million 2026 option, as the remaining vets in the starting five. Presumably there’s a spot saved for Yesavage. After that it gets sparse with journeyman Eric Lauer and wild-card Bowden Francis next in line.

General manager Ross Atkins will undoubtedly be looking to reinforce the starting staff and King would be a great fit.

He’s already familiar with life in the American League East after spending the first five years of his career with the New York Yankees, albeit as a reliever (mostly). King sports a 3.66 career ERA against the AL East and the Blue Jays proved this year that they are a legitimate contender worthy of landing top free agents.

New York Yankees

Speaking of the Yankees, they’re always looking to retool on the fly and will want to bounceback from a tough ALDS loss to the division rival Blue Jays. You can see them welcoming King back with open arms now that he has successfully and fully converted to a starter.

King began his conversion from the bullpen to a starter with nine outings at the end of the 2023 season. He excelled but was then part of the Yankees’ trade package to San Diego for Juan Soto that December.

After dealing with a plethora of injuries to the rotation in 2025, the Yankees have some question marks heading into 2026.

Thanks to Max Fried, the emergence of Cam Schlittler, and Luis Gil’s return, the Yankees were able to absorb the losses of Gerritt Cole and Clarke Schmidt (both had Tommy John). Neither will be ready for Opening Day and Schmidt will be out most of, if not all of, the upcoming year. Carlos Rodón will also start the season on the sidelines as he recovers from elbow bone spur removal surgery.

Manager Aaron Boone was forced to turn to Ryan Yarbrough (4.36 ERA), Carlos Carrasco (5.33 ERA) and Marcus Stroman (6.23 ERA) as he attempted to navigate the pitching losses.

The Yankees will want to regain their place as top dog in the AL East. If that’s their goal, a reunion with King should be on their radar.

Baltimore Orioles

Will the Baltimore Orioles learn their lesson from last offseason? After two straight years of reaching the postseason, they cheaped out on pitching and did it ever cost them.

The Orioles entered 2025 with a starting rotation featuring Zach Eflin, Charlie Morton, Dean Kremer, Tomoyuki Sugano and Cade Povich. They inserted Kyle Gibson but he only lasted four starts. Injury after injury ravaged the Orioles’ starting five.

They employed 16 pitchers to start a game, as they resorted to using openers at points. Kremer was the lone starter to qualify for MLB leaderboards with 163 1/3 innings. Unsurprisingly, the rotation finished with the seventh-highest ERA (4.65) in the majors.

At this time, Trevor Rogers, Kyle Bradish, Tyler Wells, Kremer and Povich are projected to make up their 2026 rotation. King would look good alongside Rogers at the top of that list.

While the Orioles finished dead last in the AL East at 75-87, they aren’t really the team that faceplanted for the entire 2025 season.

Baltimore’s offense should still be in good shape, with a threatening lineup that was handed blows to its two most important pieces. Star shortstop Gunnar Henderson never got right after starting the year dealing with an intercostal injury. Catcher Adley Rutschman again dealt with injuries that derailed his season.

As MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand notes, the Orioles haven’t been aggressive in free agency under general manager Mike Elias. Maybe this will be the winter that the new ownership group lets him bring in a top-end starter. If so, King could be pitching at Camden Yards in 2026.