Usually after two teams make a huge blockbuster deal, the endless debate begins of who won the trade. For this megadeal, there are multiple winners. One is most definitely Michael King.

On December 7, 2023, two franchises changed for the better with one deal that shook the baseball world to the core. The Padres gave up the world to acquire Juan Soto during the 2022 season. Less than 18 months later, the Padres shipped Soto off to New York.

Then, the Padres fanbase basically went through the seven stages of grief. At the end, when they finally arrived at the “acceptance” stage, they saw the picture.

In return for Soto (and Trent Grisham), the Padres received Michael King, Jhony Brito, Kyle Higashioka, Drew Thorpe, and Randy Vásquez. They needed pitching badly. They got it.

Yes, Soto never totally fit perfectly into the San Diego Padres’ model. He does in New York. He looks home in the Bronx pinstripes, with a career-high 40 homers, a .987 OPS, and nearly MVP-level 177 OPS+. And that’s OK.

The Padres got what they needed, too.

Michael King has been everything the Padres could’ve asked for and more. The biggest winner of the deal is King himself.

The biggest concern with the Padres’ starting rotation was, when would King’s inning limit hit? His previous career high in innings in MLB was 104 2/3 last season with the Yankees. He had made just nine starts in the previous two seasons combined.

The Padres put a lot of trust in King and, by virtue, pitching coach Ruben Niebla. Trust goes both ways. It ended up being a beautiful partnership.

King rewrote his career highs across the board with the Padres and Niebla. It would be a shorter list to name any stats where King didn’t set a new career high. He blasted through his innings high, now at 173 2/3, almost 70 innings more than his previous high watermark.

Not only did he chart unmarked territory in his workload, he somehow still maintained his high-level performance. Over that collection of innings, which was second-most on the Padres staff, he still posted a stellar 2.95 ERA, fourth-best in the NL. He is eighth in the National League in pitcher WAR at 4.1. His 139 ERA+ is third-best in the NL.

Tuesday night against the Dodgers, he crossed the 200-strikeout threshold. That is just the 12th time in franchise history (Dylan Cease became the 11th earlier) that a starter has struck out 200-plus in a season for the Padres.

King is now elite at avoiding hard contact. He ranks in the 97th percentile for both average exit velocity allowed and hard hit rate allowed. His changeup has an expected slugging percentage of .286 with a 36.2 percent whiff rate.

This season, he used his changeup 10 percent more than he did with the Yankees last season and scaled back his sweeper. Whatever mix of his repertoire he and Niebla worked out, it seems to be the optimal combination.

Despite what most believed, King has even gotten better as his workload piled up. The New England native owns a 2.15 ERA in 11 starts in the second half. He has a 1.57 ERA in September. He got better even as he obliterated his previous glass ceiling of innings.

This season, he and the Padres settled on an arbitration salary of $3.15 million. Next year is his final arbitration year before hitting free agency ahead of 2026. In essence, it’s a contract year next year. He should get a major raise in arbitration this offseason. If he continues on this trajectory, he will get handsomely paid next offseason.

This all was sparked by a move to San Diego as the “centerpiece” of the Juan Soto trade. He looks comfortable in a Padres uniform, and the Friars are certainly glad they have him for their postseason push.

Nick Lee

Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.