Michael King Wasn’t Named An All-Star, But He’s Quietly Turning Into One

The biggest story of the 2023 offseason — aside from Shohei Ohtani’s “exciting” decision to join an already-loaded Dodgers Avengers team — was, of course, the blockbuster trade that sent superstar Juan Soto to the New York Yankees.

Padres fans suffered great anguish, Yankees fans embraced profound joy, and baseball prognosticators lamented the end of San Diego’s high-flying, superstar-studded ways. A fair assumption, to be sure, but there was one major thing that might’ve been overlooked.

Enter Michael King, the other centerpiece of the trade, who has slowly been turning himself into a legitimate stud the longer the season has progressed. His last name serves as a great descriptor and summation of how his first season with the Padres is going. King has been a true godsend for a team that also lost its reigning Cy Young winner and has been hit with a litany of injuries to its rotation.

But it didn’t even remotely start that way. 

Coming into the season, King’s baseline stats were mightily impressive from his time in New York. Mainly, his 2.60 ERA his last two seasons there across 155.2 innings and deadly 30.6% strikeout rate over that timeframe. But as the Padres No. 4 starter behind Dylan Cease, Joe Musgrove, and Yu Darvish, King was perhaps the weakest link to start the season. He delivered a 5.00 ERA through March and April, with each start being a guessing game as to what he’d produce. 

It was the epitome of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation for much of the season. King delivered, at times, some genuinely historic starts like he did against the Dodgers in May, only to follow that up with a stinker against the Colorado Rockies (6 ER in 5.1 innings), of all teams, in his immediate start after. Sure, he was transitioning from more of a bullpen role in New York into a full-fledged starter in San Diego, but seeing him get blitzed with home runs didn’t inspire a lot of optimism. 

Plus, the Padres were lucky enough to have Seth Lugo transition quite well from the bullpen last year (and even better for the Royals this year), so there is frustration to be had when an arguably more talented pitcher doesn’t produce. It was so bad that some fans, like this idiot right here, started doing what all fans do best….premature complaining:

But ever since that aforementioned Rockies start, Michael King has seemingly figured things out. Over his last 10 starts, King has quietly produced a 2.54 ERA, 2.46 FIP, and elite strikeout rate of 29.4%. His one lone poor outing of this stretch, which came against the spoiler-sports known as the Milwaukee Brewers, still saw him net eight strikeouts and most of the hits he surrendered were softly-hit singles. 

So, what happened? Well, as it turns out, there hasn’t just been one, but in fact several, reasons for Michael King’s breakout. 

First and foremost, the man has simply decided that being punching-bag (hitting bag?) practice for the Home Run Derby wasn’t exactly his cup of tea. In March and April, King surrendered 10 home runs to opposing hitters.

From May to the present day, King has surrendered a combined total of four home runs. His hard-hit rate is in the 87th percentile, and average exit velocity surrendered is in the 95th percentile among all pitchers. 

The latter is even better than what he did with the Yankees, and being in the much more pitcher-friendly confines all culminates in a pitcher that’s just not giving up nearly as much explosive contact as he once was. 

Combine that with King’s swing-and-miss stuff, and you’re looking at something special. His sweeper has been deadly for sure, but his best pitch, a changeup, is the main weapon instilling fear in hitters’ hearts. It carries with it an impressive 35.5% whiff rate as well as a positive run value of 8, the latter of which is tied for the second-best among all active pitcher changeups. 

It also seems like King is a staunch reminder of why patience is so important. Transitioning into a starter requires some tinkering, and it seems like that’s exactly what the righty has been doing. 

Much of Michael King’s pitch selection, as seen above, was erratic at the beginning of the 2024 campaign, and the more balanced-approach from his repertoire has coincided with better numbers. His fastball velocity may have taken a dip from prior seasons, but his repertoire containing such variety — with him even adding a slider to his arsenal this season — is as good a sign as you can find. 

Plus, who knows, maybe this Padres season has something more magical contributing to it, too. Jake Cronenworth recently got engaged and is having a major bounce back season. And Michael King also, you guessed it, got married prior to the season — 10 days, in fact, after the trade was announced and finalized. Coincidence? I think not. Love is everything; without it we’d be nothing but hoodlums surrendering home runs and letting our teams down.

The Padres getting to the point where they found themselves having to trade Juan Soto — a, dare I say, fireable offense in its lonesome — is still a tough pill to swallow.

But when you consider the package they received, which gave them a solid catcher that has turned into Barry Bonds (Kyle Higashioka has hit 10 home runs since June 1st), prospects that were then flipped for an ace in Dylan Cease, and a quietly excellent starter with ace upside in Michael King…it might be time to start having a dialogue. 

Michael King’s stretch of dominance is not just good for the Padres 2024 success, but also for making the Juan Soto trade quietly look like one of the best moves of the entire offseason.