Yesterday, the Padres and right-hander Michael King avoided an arbitration hearing with a creative deal that guarantees King $7.75MM. The deal splits that guarantee between a signing bonus and the buyout on a 2026 mutual option in addition to his 2025 salary in order to slightly ease some of the financial issues facing San Diego as they look to upgrade their roster this winter. Despite the sides’ ability to come together on an unusual solution to their dispute over King’s salary for this year, however, the right-hander told reporters (including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune) at the Padres’ FanFest event today that he has not been approached regarding a long-term extension that would keep him in San Diego beyond the 2025 season.
That there apparently has not yet been a conversation between the two camps about a long-term deal is an interesting development given previous reports that the club believes King to be more amenable to the possibility of an extension than fellow walk year righty Dylan Cease. Those rumors have led to a belief throughout the offseason that San Diego would prefer to deal Cease rather than King if they end up trading one of their two front-of-the-rotation arms amid their pursuit of pitching depth and lineup upgrades. That appears to still be the case, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the club is “not actively shopping” King in the aftermath of the sides reaching an arbitration agreement. Acee is quick to note that the new contract doesn’t necessarily preclude a trade from occurring, but it appears clearer than ever that the Padres’ preference is for the departing pitcher to be Cease if they wind up dealing one of their top arms.
As for King, the righty spoke to reporters (including Sanders) about the swirling trade rumors today, saying that he would be “shocked” if he were to be traded before adding that hearing your name in the rumor mill is “part of the business.”
“Obviously anything can happen,” King said, as relayed by Sanders. “I didn’t think I was going to get traded over here that offseason last year. Anything can happen.”
While it’s unclear whether King’s confidence that he’ll be in a Padres uniform on Opening Day and the club’s apparent preference for dealing Cease if one of the pair is traded will actually lead to King remaining in San Diego, it should be noted that the sides not yet having discussed an extension does not preclude them from doing so in the coming weeks. Extension negotiations between players and clubs frequently open after the start of Spring Training, and the Padres have been among the most prolific clubs in the sport when it comes to springtime extensions in recent years.
It was just two years ago that San Diego signed Jake Cronenworth, Manny Machado, and Yu Darvish to a trio of lengthy extensions over the course of Spring Training 2023, and two years before that the club famously agreed to a massive $340MM contract with Fernando Tatis Jr. during Spring Training 2021. They’ve at least explored extensions with other players during the spring in recent years as well, such as Jackson Merrill last winter. Whether King will join the list of Padres player to put pen to paper on extensions just before reaching free agency remains to be seen, but even with no talks between the sides to this point the possibility of some discussions between the sides this spring can’t be ruled out.
Aside from San Diego’s hefty payroll commitments that have limited their flexibility in recent years, one potential obstacle for any King extension would surely be his unusual history. The right-hander posted an excellent season in 2024 with a 2.95 ERA in 173 2/3 innings of work, but that was his first season pitching as a full-time starting pitcher since 2018, during his age-23 season in the minor leagues. While King’s 39 starts since being put back in the rotation by the Yankees down the stretch last year have been electric, his ability to keep up with a 150+ inning workload for a second consecutive season will surely have a major impact on his value in free agency. Given the importance of his platform season, it wouldn’t be a shock if the sides struggled to reach an agreement on what fair value looks like even if they do engage in extension talks at some point before Opening Day.
I wonder if King would take a really good deal with a lot of it deferred? Maybe a $15 mil sobbing bonus and the rest deferred?
I would work that angle
At this point to extend anyone that will be a FA at season’s end, the Padres would have to go over the 2nd CBT threshold of $261 million.
In the 2025-2026 offseason the CBT payroll will go from the $249.17 million it is at right now to $169.6 million. With the CBT threshold being at $244 million for the 2026 season, the Padres will have $74.4 million to extend or sign players.
Now is not the time to even talk about it. Even if the extension doesn’t start until 2026, I am pretty sure that the AAV applies to 2025 for the CBT payroll.
or maybe they feel like a bigger contract based on 1 year is too risky??
The beginning of a downturn to an ultimate rebuild in three or four years; likely under new ownership.
Thank Sheel Seidler for the instability.
Thank AJ Preller for going nuts with the checkbook.
Thank Peter Seidler for the mancrush on Manny Machado and that stupid extension.
“Crikes Already”
Are you trolling or missing the big picture?
1.). Peter Seidler took the Padres and vastly increased the team value and national presence. The team fell short in making the World Series, but from a business standpoint, the team’s worth skyrocketed.
True, the Bogey deal was an overpay. They should have signed a cheap 1B rather than another shortstop to a bloated contract.
2.). They still have a good farm system with fries and a salad, oops, De Vries and Salas, almost time for dinner.
3.). Not Peter or Sheel’s fault that Musgrove got injured.
Crikes, that’s strike three on you, you’re out!
Salas isn’t very good. Won’t even be ranked by the end of the season.
Lol, Salas is already an alstael level defensive catcher, by most accounts. Let him work on his hitting, he’ll be a stud.
As for the rebuild, no, it won’t be a rebuild per se. Theyve got 3 guys on last year of their contra ts. You trade them, get Major. League level guys like Kjersted/Casas (just examples), then you’ve got a great young affordable group.
Yes a career .637 OPS in the low minors is screaming star. If you actually read his scouting reports he regressed defensively this year.
Salas is five years and two months younger than Ronny Mauricio. He will still be 18 years old on Opening Day. Two monthis into the MLB season, yup, he will still be 18. Maybe he will be a star and maybe he won’t. But for you to sound sure that he “isn’t very good” is just trolling. Baseball America and every otherwell known prospect rater has Salas in the top 30. Now, with Preller there, no guarantee that the Friars are the team where Salas ends up making his MLB debut, but he obviously has star potential.
mlb.com/news/top-catching-prospects-for-2025
Where’d you see the report of his defense slipping? Keith Law in his latest report spoke nothing of that and ranked him 17th.
The guy is 18. He’s highly regarded for a reason. There’s more to prospect evaluation than ops.
He’s a smart guy. At the end of the season he said in an interview he’s working on not overthinking when hitting, as that’s when he’s most successful. He’s 18.
Don’t bother crikes. There are a ton of Blindly Faithful that can’t or won’t see the dookie brown smeared writing on the wall.
Salas struggled badly with the bat most of last season. Then they brought him petco to work with the hitting coaches there and made an adjustment. After that he was much better to finished the season.
This is big year for him, if he can get his bat back on track he will rise back up to the top 15 again.
He gone next yr
Another James Shields
The owner is broke. Of course there’s no extension talks.
But we’re supposed to pretend that’s not the case here. The fact they have too many players signed for too much money for WAY too many years has nothing to do with their not having extension talks with King. We now return you to your regular programming.
Theyre not broke….lol
I wish I was that level of broke
They’re really just cash poor.
As soon as they can sell the team, they’ll be multi billionaires again!
Which is why the Padres are one of a handful of teams whose payroll is up this season. It must be why they increased payroll $44 million already this offseason. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Preller’s ridiculous contracts are coming home to roost. Gonna be an interesting next couple of years.
It would be sweet if they agreed to a contract a week or two into the season that went into affect in 2026 so not to impact this years luxury tax. 4/75m with an opt out after year 3 if he pitches at least 500 innings over the first 3 years.
Could very well happen. Theyve got a good amount coming off the books next year.
At least $20 million coming off the books by this year’s trade deadline. Probably more!!
The CBT payroll drops from the $249.17 million it’s at today to $169.6 million after the season. Hosmer alone accounts for $17.24 million for CBT purposes.
I am pretty sure King believes in himself and isn’t gonna to take much of a discount. If he knows his market could get crazy hot and he could be looking at a bidding war of between 5 years/$120M and 8 years/$260M I don’t see him accepting, say, 7 years/$105M or something from the Padres. Plus, they don’t seem keen on spending anymore beyond the albatrosses they can’t get out from under.
I suspect it’d take like 6 years/$150M minimum to get King to sign early with them, rather than testing the open market.
The best thing for this team is to get as much as they can for Arreaz ,Cease, King,Suarez & go for it next year with new owners.
This is the time to sell high. Giants had a similar opportunity a few years back and blew it. Now they are stuck in the worst place possible which is right in the middle
I think they could trade Arraez and Suarez, have money to extend King and sign a bat, and go for it this year. If they are out at the allstar break, trade the 2 of them.
I think if they trade two players it’s cease and Suarez.
Though you are correct the could turn and extend king. Then do Merrill in the offseason.
It’s funny how the article says the padres have been doing their extensions over the spring. Yet everyone here is like they broke no wonder why they haven’t talked to him.
There won’t be new owners next year.
Discussions ARE underway with JOE KING !!
Just send him to Atlanta already.
Pads will not be giving out $100MM+ contracts as it stands.
This should be a surprise to absolutely no one. I do believe King is a great guy to extend bc his price will only shoot up if he’s the same pitcher again. But nothing from SD would make you believe that’s possible for the club.
If cease king Suarez aren’t interested in extensions you can afford best long term option is trade them and use the money saved and assets to build up rest of roster for 2025 and beyond
Bring back some young controllable pitchers and position players who can contribute now or in 2026
Get a cheap LF or move cronenworth to LF put Arraez at 2B or vice versa. I remember Profar being a poor defensive INF back in his ranger atheltics days so wonder if arraez can handle LF same way Profar did
I’d sign Turner and Martinez as 1B and DH to add some experience to the lineup similar to what Peralta and Solano gave them last year but more power from power positions.
I’d also sign Kiki Hernandez as super utility who can handle pretty much every position except catcher
1B Turner
2B Cronenworth
Ss Bogaerts
3B Machado
C Campusano
LF Arraez
Cf Merril
RF Tatis jr
Bench of Rosario Hernandez Lockridge could use a LF bench bat or two
Rotation of
Darvish
Vasquez
Young pitcher brought back in Cease trade
Young pitcher brought back in King trade
And someone to fill out the 5th spot which padres have options
That team you assembled is good for about 65ish wins. Maybe the imaginary pitchers in the rotation really shine and get you…
72wins?
You ever get tired of being wrong? Cause 99% of your time here is just posting wrong stuff people have to correct you about anyways. Do you enjoy random people belittling you or something? Theres other ways to get your kicks in than mlb trade rumors chat rooms man. Healthier outlets too.
No suprise.
King is a difficult person to value. I think 5 years 115 or so is fair today right now. He certainly could wait and get more if he repeats his 2024 season. I can see both sides waiting to see what happens regardless of the Padres financial issues.
5 years and over 100 million for a pitcher who has only pitched one full season?
Dodgers gave Yamamoto 300 mill based on 0 games pitched.
@Bring
He obviously had a large body of work from his yard in Japan, and while the leagues aren’t on the exact same level, you can judge who had the stuff to perform in the MLB.
And king has a large body of work coming up the minors as a starter who went reliever back to starter
It was a pretty darn good season.
If he has another like it he’s guaranteed to get more money than that.
Yes. King has the potential to be bargain. He won’t be any cheaper next offseason if he makes it there.
This is no surprise. Guys running Pods since Peter’s passing will not sign anyone for more than peanuts until Bogaerts contract expires. They want income, not wins or even capital appreciation. I only wish they and local media would stop telling fans to expect replacements for Profar, Kim, Higgy, Solano etc will arrive and be more productive. This is insulting. Sell the team, please
TBH I’m stunned that Peter did not leave in place a biz-as-usual protocol. Everyone assumed that was both his intent and his plan.
Come to find, it appears on the surface that he hasn’t left behind the continuity to extend his fire insurance and pest-control contracts let alone any of the ballplayers.
I pretty much refuse to believe that is true, and thus do not understand what happened, and how. Perhaps over the coming year-plus, litigation-discovery will shed some light. If not, things like the Xander signing make no sense.
To extend ANY player that is scheduled to be a FA at seasons end or even Merrill at this point the Padres would have to surpass the 2nd CBT tier.
At the end of the 2025 season their CBT payroll will go from $249.1 million it is today to $169.6 million. That will be the time to talk to players like King, Cease, and Arraez about signing as a free agent. Not now.
Are people really stupid enough to 1st say the Padres are in a payroll crunch and have to lower payroll, even though they are $44 million above last season, and then complain that they are not talking to players like King about an extension at the same time? Oh wait, it was Nick Deeds. Enough said,
Dana, Adell and Schanuel for King. Get er done Perry, you unimaginative bafoon.