NEW YORK -- Michael King always envisioned this: He’s on the mound at Yankee Stadium in the midst of an excellent season. He’s starting a high-profile game for a contender. He has emerged as one of the best starting pitchers in baseball.
OK -- maybe he didn’t envision the pinstripes being brown. But in hindsight, his fit in San Diego was the right one.
On Tuesday night, King made his first appearance at Yankee Stadium since he was dealt to the Padres in the 2023 Juan Soto deal. King worked six innings of two-run ball before a rare bullpen implosion in San Diego’s 12-3 loss.
Through eight starts, King now owns a 2.22 ERA this year. A season ago -- his first as a full-time starter -- King made 31 appearances (30 starts) and posted a 2.95 mark. He made two more starts in the playoffs and won both. That’s a total of 40 starts across King’s tenure with the Padres -- in which he owns a 2.85 ERA with 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
“I definitely think I was given a longer leash as a starter over here,” King said Monday, before his start. “I think that [pitching coach] Ruben [Niebla] has been incredible for my development. … He knew how to manage my innings, but also make sure that I was strong enough to get through a full season and be strong for the following year. I think [the trade] was great for my development as a starter.”
To be clear, the Yankees also envisioned success for King as a starting pitcher. Until the Soto trade came to fruition, they planned to enter the 2024 season with King in their rotation.
“I was going to come in as a starter in 2024, had the trade not happened,” King said. “But you have no idea. They have a ton of talent over there that has emerged. … I'm very happy with where I'm at.”
About that … King is only under contract in San Diego through the end of the season. There has been no indication that he and the Padres have engaged in negotiations for an extension. At this point, the 29-year-old King seems destined to hit free agency as one of the market’s most sought-after commodities: a high-level starting pitcher still in his 20s.
That’s not where King’s focus is. In fact, he’s currently leaning on his experience from one of the most high-profile free-agent seasons in recent memory: Aaron Judge’s 62-homer 2022 campaign with the Yankees.
“I know he turned down an extension going into his last year,” King said. “His whole thing was: He was going to make the person next to him the best player that they could be. And all he was going to do was try to care about wins.
“Once you finish 162 -- or hopefully more in the playoffs -- then you can actually look up and figure out what's happening in free agency. So I’m taking it game by game, trying to make every starter around me as good as they can be and trying to win as many games as possible."
Thus far, King has lived that mantra. He has been a strong presence in the clubhouse and in pitchers meetings, as the Padres have roared to the second-best record in the Majors at 23-12. The personal numbers, as King predicted, have followed.
On Tuesday, however, King didn’t have his best stuff. Or anything close, in his view.
“I actually felt like I had nothing,” King said. “Sinker, changeup, four-seamer -- really bad command.”
In the fourth inning, Judge launched a solo homer to the first row in right field, and King wasn’t about to use Yankee Stadium’s short porch as an excuse.
“I threw a middle-middle fastball to the best hitter in baseball,” King said. “I'm not expecting to get that one back.”
Nonetheless, King grinded his way to six innings, before the Yankees jumped all over Adrian Morejon and Wandy Peralta. How stunning was the implosion? Even after the Padres allowed 10 runs in the seventh inning, they’d still allowed the fewest runs of any bullpen in baseball.
“One of those games,” said Padres manager Mike Shildt. “One of those innings. I will be more than happy to run them both out there tomorrow.”
King exited in line for the win. Instead the Padres endured a lopsided loss in his Yankee Stadium return.
“They’ve been the best part of us to start the year,” King said of his bullpen, having clearly taken the advice from his former teammate to heart. “I know I’ve got a ton of faith.”