Trade Deadline: Michael King Accepts $120 Million, 4-Year Deal with the San Diego Padres…

 

The deal includes a $3 million signing bonus and a $1 million salary for 2025 plus a $15 million mutual option for 2026 with a substantial buyout.

King is guaranteed $7.75 million, including a $3.75 million buyout if the mututal option is not exercised, and contract incentives could push his one-year take to $8 million.

A key piece in the December 2023 trade that sent Juan Soto to the Yankees, King finished seventh in National League Cy Young voting in his first full season as a starter.

The 29-year-old right-hander, whose 30 starts were 11 more than he had made in his first five MLB seasons combined, ranked fifth in the NL with a 2.95 ERA and 201 strikeouts and was second on the Padres and 14th in the NL with 173⅔ innings.

The sides were unable to reach an agreement on a contract for 2025 before the Jan. 9 deadline to do so, and their proposed salary figures for arbitration were almost $1.5 million apart. The Padres submitted a number of $7.325 million, while King countered at $8.8 million.

With Friday’s deal, the Padres avoid what would have been their first arbitration case since 2014, the year before A.J. Preller took over the club’s baseball operations department.

The compromise had benefits for both sides.

The Padres, who are trying to maxmize all the spending flexbility they can, get to spread out the checks they write.

As a Florida resident, King stands to realize a tax savings of more than $300,000 on the signing bonus. King will earn $50,000 for making 20 starts, another $100,000 for 25 starts and $100,000 more if he reaches 28 starts. With base salary, signing bonus, at least 28 starts and the buyout, he would make $8 million.

King, who was in his final year of arbitration eligibility and was due to become a free agent, had been the subject of trade talks, though it has always seemed more likely the Padres move fellow right-handed starter Dylan Cease.