There have been rumors swirling about Padres right handed pitcher Michael King being on the trade market before the 2025 season. To go along with Dylan Cease, the Padres may be looking to sell off a lot of their talent. After the phenomenal season King had posting a 2.95 ERA in 30 starts, the 29-year old could be a hot commodity on the market.
Here are some potential suitors that could use King in their starting rotation:
Baltimore Orioles
By far the best fit, King spent a majority of his career in the American League East and the Orioles need a frontline starter badly. While they made some moves this offseason, getting aging arms such as Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano most likely won’t move the needle too much. King coming in gives the Orioles an established one, while Eflin, Rodriguez, and Kremer can complement the rest.
It’s hard to say who could be on the table from Baltimore given King’s a free agent in 2026. An arm like top pitching prospect Chayce McDermott seems like a possible return. The 1-4 of Mayo, Basallo, Honeycutt, and Bradfield would most likely be hard to cough up here.
Atlanta Braves
The Braves don’t need a frontline starter by any means. They have Chris Sale coming off a Cy Young year, Reynaldo Lopez coming off of a career reviving year, and Spencer Schwellenbach appearing to blossom into a great starter. However, King could very much bolster the rotation as a whole. In a hyper-competitive National League East, this seems like a good move for Atlanta.
It’d be interesting here to see what arms could be in play for San Diego in return. JR Ritchie and Drue Hackenberg are both great pitching prospects outside of the MLB Pipeline Top 100, while top arms Waldrep, Smith-Shawver, and Caminiti are most likely off the table.
New York Mets
The Mets have a six man rotation projected by FanGraphs as of this moment, but adding King would certainly help. After Sean Manaea and Kodai Senga, there are a lot of question marks within this rotation. Adding King provides three solid starters, while you hope Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Frankie Montas, or Paul Blackburn can put together a solid campaign.
The Mets do have arms that could look to break into the rotation this season, so a trade for another starter may not be a priority. Brandon Sproat and Blade Tidwell are among names in the Mets Top 30 that could crack the pitching staff this season. Tidwell could be a potential name, possibly in a return for King.
Texas Rangers
The Rangers have been busy this offseason and adding Michael King can be another move to add to the receipt. While the back end of the rotation doesn’t look the strongest necessarily, they do have Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter to hopefully come in for support in 2025. Adding King however just helps the Rangers chances in the American League West. Throwing him in a rotation with arms like Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, and Kumar Rocker would be incredible.
The Rangers have plenty of prospects they can pick to trade, with still a fairly young core at the big league level. Pitching prospects like Emiliano Teodo or Winston Santos could be a possible return for San Diego.
New York Yankees
The Yankees can try to move Marcus Stroman here, as they’ve said that they won’t make another move until he can be involved. While they also currently have a six man rotation this could be a great homecoming for King. The Yankees can strengthen their top of the league rotation even more, but is the rental arm the deal they need to make is the real question. There are still spots to fill in the infield, so who knows if the Yankees try to pull off a bigger trade with another bat involved.