Michael King Saved the Padres' October. Now His Opt-Out Is Their Whole Offseason

The San Diego Padres' season ended the way too many of them have lately — at home, in a division series, close enough to touch. Milwaukee beat them 3-1 in Game 4 at Petco Park on Oct. 7, closing out an NLDS the Padres never led. What's left behind is a 91-71 regular season that included a Wild Card sweep of the Cubs, and a fresh set of questions about whether this core gets another swing.

The most compelling thread of the week isn't the elimination itself. It's Michael King.

King was the best version of himself when it mattered most. He started Game 2 in Milwaukee and threw five innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts. Two days later, with the season on the line and closer Mason Miller unavailable, King came out of the bullpen and recorded a two-inning save to keep San Diego alive. He was reportedly available again for Game 4. His regular-season line — 12-10, a 3.21 ERA, 185 innings, 159 strikeouts, a 1.18 WHIP — was already the quiet backbone of a rotation that didn't always hold up. Over his final five appearances, he posted a 2.83 ERA and a 1.029 WHIP.

Now he holds an opt-out, and per reporting this week, he's open to returning. That single decision will reveal more about the Padres' 2027 plans than any press conference. Bleacher Report has already ranked San Diego as his top projected landing spot, which is a polite way of saying the rotation has a hole if he walks. Behind him, the staff isn't deep: the 60-day injured list still carries Bryan Hoeing, Ramón Laureano, Lucas Giolito, Luis Rengifo and Rodolfo Durán, and there's no obvious internal replacement for 185 innings of above-average work.

The broader picture explains why this matters so much. San Diego's 3.90 team ERA sat well behind Milwaukee's 3.38, and the Padres' .715 OPS trailed the Brewers' .741. The bullpen, at a 3.17 ERA and 10.25 strikeouts per nine, was genuinely elite — Mason Miller put up a 1.67 ERA with 38 saves and 129 strikeouts in 70 innings — but the front half of games is where this team got outclassed. Fernando Tatis Jr. was excellent (.289 average, 25 homers, 38 steals, .828 OPS). Manny Machado hit 30 home runs but batted .217 with a .710 OPS, and a lineup that struck out 1,201 times while walking 517 was prone to exactly the quiet nights that ended the NLDS.

The market hasn't written this group off. Championship futures for San Diego sit in roughly the 19-1 to 22-1 range at most books, which frames the Padres as a contender with a ceiling rather than a finished product.

That framing is accurate, and it's also the problem. Every October exit makes the window feel a little narrower, and the club now heads into an offseason with a left-field question, a rotation decision hanging on King, and a roster that keeps arriving at the same doorstep. The Wild Card sweep of Chicago showed what this team looks like when the pitching lines up. Losing King would mean spending the winter trying to rebuild the exact thing that made October survivable in the first place.

San Diego doesn't need to be fixed. It needs to stop springing leaks. Whether it does starts with one right-hander's signature.