The San Diego Padres are out of the playoffs. Michael King is the biggest winner of the postseason anyway.
King threw 14 innings this October with a 0.64 ERA, 15 strikeouts and a 0.714 WHIP. He was the only Padres starter to complete five innings in the entire run. San Diego went 91-71 and lost the NLDS to Milwaukee 3-1, and it was not King’s fault.
The Contract Situation
King, 31, has a player option this winter covering the final two years and $58 million of the three-year, $75 million deal he signed with San Diego. He is widely expected to opt out.
He should. The October line is the kind of showcase that reprices a pitcher, and it came on top of a full, healthy season: 12-10 with a 3.21 ERA across 185 innings, 159 strikeouts, a 1.178 WHIP and a career-high 32 starts.
That last number matters more than the ERA. King spent years as a swingman and a reliever before becoming a full-time starter, and durability was the open question on his profile. He answered it, then threw 14 dominant postseason innings on top of it.
What He Said About It
King was careful after the NLDS ended, which is what you would expect from a player who has not made a decision he can only make once.
He said the Padres “started a family” in San Diego, that “yeah, I hope to continue,” and described the option as a “future decision.” That is a player keeping a door open without closing the one behind him.
The Market Just Moved Under Him
CBS Sports ranked King sixth among 2026-27 free agents on September 8, behind Tarik Skubal, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Adrian Morejon, Seiya Suzuki and Randy Arozarena. He has almost certainly moved up since.
Partly because of his own October, and partly because several players ahead of or near him on that list did nothing with theirs. Suzuki got two games before the Cubs were swept out of the Wild Card round. Randal Grichuk went 6-for-26 with no extra-base hits. Robbie Ray posted a 7.36 ERA in two appearances. Cedric Mullins had one at-bat.
The pitchers who helped themselves alongside King are a short list. Tyler Mahle threw 13.1 innings with a 1.35 ERA for Atlanta in two starts. Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips have both been perfect in short Dodgers relief outings. Jake Bauers has a .462 on-base percentage for Milwaukee.
The Thing That Could Ruin All of It
The Basic Agreement expires December 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and a lockout is widely expected absent a deal. MLB has proposed cutting the regular season to 154 games and restructuring the playoffs, contingent on the players accepting a salary cap and floor.
A free agent who opts out of $58 million guaranteed and then walks into a frozen market is taking on real risk. King will have to decide whether his October is worth more than the certainty in his hand.
Given the way he threw, it is. A right-hander who just put up a 0.64 postseason ERA across four starts worth of innings, in his age-31 season, coming off 185 regular-season frames, is not a player who should be locking in two years.
No credible contract projections have been published, and nobody should trust one that has. What is clear is that the number on the other side of that opt-out is larger than $58 million.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.