Michael King receives Padres’ Opening Day nod versus Braves
The New Yorker
A week from Thursday, the San Diego Padres begin their march toward October. A pitcher’s duel might be in store for Opening Day.
Right-hander Michael King will toe the slab for the Friars against the Atlanta Braves March 27, manager Mike Shildt confirmed Monday morning to reporters.
Perhaps San Diego’s most consistent starting pitcher in 2024, King gets the nod over Dylan Cease and Yu Darvish.
Opening Day belongs to the King.#SDOpeningDay pic.twitter.com/CGVNvPNud0
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 17, 2025
When was the last time King faced the Braves’ offense?
Game 1 of the 2024 NL Wild Card Series in which he dominated Atlanta hitters in a 4-0 shutout victory. King became the first pitcher in Major League history to pitch at least seven shutout innings with 10 or more strikeouts without issuing a walk or hitting a batter. He also joined Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock as only one of three Padres’ to post double-digit strikeouts in a postseason game.
Many questions surrounded King’s ability to stay healthy and consistent when the New York Yankees traded him to the Padres in a package for Juan Soto in December 2023.
In four seasons with the Yankees, King started 19 games while being used in a relief role for much of his tenure in the Bronx. In his first full season as a starter last year, King pitched to a 2.95 ERA while striking out 201 batters in 173.2 innings pitched. He finished seventh in NL Cy Young voting, three spots behind teammate Dylan Cease, who finished fourth.
“I think it was a body of work of everything last year — how he got better,” Mike Shildt said. “After April with Michael, and there’s a pretty clear case that he was a Cy Young from May to the end of the season, including the playoffs,” Shildt said. “So I think that was a huge part of it. And he continues to go about things and pitch well during spring training, and it looks like he’s in a really good place.”
Michael King talks about why it’s so significant to start on Opening Day and the camaraderie of the Padres rotation. pic.twitter.com/KGDcaB0XZQ
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) March 17, 2025
King, 29, will hit free agency after the 2025 season.
On January 31, King and the Padres avoided arbitration by agreeing to a uniquely structured one-year contract for this season. The contract guarantees him $7.75 million and a mutual option for the 2026 season. Based on what he accomplished in 2024, expectations and a bit of pressure await the Padres’ ace.
2024 NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale will counter King and the Padres to open the season at Petco Park. After Shildt shared the news with King that he’d be starting game 1 of 162, King responded: “We’ll be 1-0.” The Gaslamp Quarter will be rocking once again.
Armando Dueñas is a 25 year-old journalist. He is a native San Diegan who grew up in the South Bay area. A lifelong Padres fan and baseball enthusiast, he resides just about fifteen minutes from Petco Park, where his love of the game began.