SAN DIEGO — Michael King has pitched here in the postseason before, although the environment was far removed from where he is now.
On Oct. 7, 2020, the right-hander threw two scoreless innings of relief for the New York Yankees. He did so in a virtually empty Petco Park, the bubble site for an American League division series during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inside the visiting clubhouse before and after his outing, he wore a mask at all times. The experience still represented a career highlight; King, then a rookie, had been left off the postseason roster in the Yankees’ wild-card round.
“Honestly,” King said, “I was just happy to be there.”
Tuesday night will bring the latest apex in his ascendant career. The Padres revealed Monday that King will start the first game of their postseason opener against the Atlanta Braves. The choice might have been a surprise even a couple of weeks ago. But then, King has done everything the team could have hoped for since it acquired him in one of the more famous exchanges in recent baseball history.
King, a former reliever, emerged during his first regular season with San Diego as one of the top starters in the game. He recorded a 2.95 ERA. He struck out 201 batters. He started the game in which the Padres memorably clinched their return to the playoffs. He made the Juan Soto trade look like a true win-win, in part, by throwing a career-high 173 2/3 innings — 69 more innings than he tallied last season for the Yankees and not far from the number he targeted in spring training.
Michael King, Wicked 94mph Front Door Two Seamer. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/0Z3Fgrwred
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 18, 2024
“It’s everything that I set out to be,” King said. “I failed in that 180 innings (goal), but I hope to make it up and get to 200, still, with a World Series appearance. So, I think it’s everything that I wanted. There are obviously a ton of things that I still can learn from and be better at next year. But now, it’s just putting up as many zeroes as possible and give the team a chance to win every time out.”
Friday’s win in Arizona secured home-field advantage for the Padres while eliminating any need for King to start, on turn, in Sunday’s regular-season finale. So, he will pitch Tuesday on ample rest. That factored into the Padres’ decision to slot King ahead of more experienced starters Joe Musgrove (Game 2) and Dylan Cease (Game 3, if necessary). Opening Day starter Yu Darvish, who pitched more recently than the others, will be a member of San Diego’s Wild Card Series bullpen.
Yet, King also earned this opportunity.
“He’s posted. He’s gone wire to wire,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “He’s pitched very well, exceptionally well. You know, I don’t look at a lot of the league leaders and so forth, but he’s up there in ERA. He’s pitched extremely well. And he’s able to navigate both sides of the plate with his arsenal. I mean, Michael’s really nasty.”
King has had to learn how to harness his stuff. At the end of April, he had a 5.00 ERA. He had surrendered more home runs than any pitcher in the majors. He had issued more walks than anyone else.
His struggles were explainable. He also had to learn the routine of a full-time starter. He had to learn how to better leverage the weight room and the training table. And, in games, he had to learn how to navigate multiple turns through a lineup.
He did. From May 1 through the end of the regular season, King produced a 2.42 ERA and 4.5 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs. Only Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Detroit’s Tarik Skubal were more valuable by that metric. Those two pitchers are the strong favorites to win Cy Young Awards in their respective leagues.
“It’s really just finding the soft contact. That’s been a huge thing of mine that I had to learn how to even scout for,” King said. “As a reliever, I just wanted to go for swing-and-miss. And if I walked you, I walked you. … Obviously, as a starter, you want to be able to provide length to the team, and if you go out and go after swing-and-miss every pitch, you’re never going to go deep into games.”
King wound up making six starts of at least seven innings, second-most on the team behind Cease. Concerns about a potential workload limit faded throughout the summer; the Padres saw King’s velocity, arm slot and other indicators hold up into September when he pitched to a 1.57 ERA. His teammates took note, even before he took off, of how he prepared.
“Adding him to the staff that we have here with Joe, Darvish, Cease, (pitching coach Ruben Niebla), he’s fit in well with game planning, man,” third baseman Manny Machado said. “He goes out there and competes, and he’s ready for his opponent. He’s studying. He’s doing everything he needs to do to prepare for his start. And it fed in well with our team.
“He’s just a great competitor that loves to compete and play. And I think everyone’s excited for him to go Game 1 and play behind him and give him some runs.”
Speaking late Monday afternoon at Petco Park, King reminisced about his 2020 outing in the building. He reflected on how far he had come and pointed out that he remained an unfinished product. (“There are studs,” King said, “that could also have gone Game 1.”) He and Machado both acknowledged the Padres will enter Tuesday with an inherent advantage.
The Braves — who will likely be without Sale in the wild-card round because of back spasms — played a doubleheader Monday in Atlanta. Only after the second game ended was Tuesday’s matchup set.
“It’s gonna be a good battle,” King said. “I know the Braves just went through a crazy day, and we’re hoping to give them a little bit more craziness.”
Tuesday, unlike four years ago, the stands at Petco Park will be packed. They have been all season.
“I’ve heard about that 2022 playoff run, just what (the Padres) did, and I think that that’s incredibly uncomfortable for an opposing team to come into,” King said. “It’s a lot to come into that atmosphere. And then knowing that (the fans are) going to be even louder and probably even more somehow, it’s going to be a very tough time for our opponent and something that we’re going to have to feed off of. And I can’t wait to turn up my PitchCom and make sure I can hear everything, but it’ll be a very fun time for me tomorrow.”
(Photo: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)
