Michael King, Padres Reportedly Agree to New $75M Deal, Full Contract Details

Michael King and the San Diego Padres are reportedly staying together after the two sides agreed to a new contract in free agency.

Per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, King will sign a three-year, $75 million deal with the Padres that features player options.

However, it appears the Padres attempted to sign another starter before re-signing King.

According to The Athletic's Dennis Lin, the Padres reportedly made what they considered to be a "competitive offer" to Merrill Kelly, who signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks on a two-year, $40 million deal, earlier in the offseason.

After Kelly signed with the D-Backs, the Padres retained King.

King became a free agent after declining his $15 million mutual option with the Padres. There was some risk with the move because he is coming off an injury-plagued 2025 that included two stints on the IL and limited him to 15 starts.

When King was on the mound, his performance wasn't at the same level it had been the previous three years. He had a respectable 3.44 ERA, but allowed some hard contact that contributed to his 1.5 homers allowed per nine innings.

Some of those issues can be attributed to a pinched nerve in his right shoulder that kept him out for nearly three months.

From 2022 to '24, King had a 2.79 ERA and 394 strikeouts in 329.1 innings. He didn't become a full-time starter until late in the 2023 season with the New York Yankees, who traded him to the Padres in December 2023 as part of the Juan Soto deal.

King blossomed in his first year with San Diego, finishing seventh in NL Cy Young voting with a 2.95 ERA and 201 strikeouts in 173.2 innings.

The track record for King as a starter is relatively small, with just 64 starts in seven seasons, but the upside is enormous as he showed during the 2024 campaign.

That is the bet the Padres are making, with the hope King can be a frontline starter to lead them into the postseason in 2026.

San Diego also needed some semblance of stability in the rotation if it hopes to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. Dylan Cease is no longer on the roster after joining the Toronto Blue Jays, and Yu Darvish will miss all of next season after undergoing elbow surgery in November.

Joe Musgrove is also an unknown as he missed all of 2025 recovering from Tommy John surgery. That left Nick Pivetta and Randy Vásquez as the only sure-things for the Padres rotation going into next season.

King at least offers the Padres some peace of mind knowing they have three quality starters to build around for 2026.