Two Days After Game 2, Michael King Became the Padres' Biggest Offseason Question

The Padres' season ended in Game 4 of the NLDS against Milwaukee, a 3-1 loss at Petco Park in which San Diego managed one run. But the image that will linger from this October isn't the final out — it's Michael King jogging in from the bullpen.

King started Game 2 in Milwaukee and threw five innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts in a 4-3 loss. Two days later, in Game 3, he came back and recorded a two-inning save, striking out one and allowing nothing. According to MLB Trade Rumors, he was available again for Game 4. A starting pitcher volunteering for relief work on short rest in an elimination-adjacent game is the kind of thing a fanbase remembers for a decade. It's also the kind of thing that makes the business side of the winter significantly harder.

The number that matters

King's 2026 regular season: 12-10, 3.21 ERA over 185 innings and 32 starts, 159 strikeouts against 70 walks, a 1.18 WHIP, and 4.26 WAR. His expected ERA sat at 4.42, so there's some regression argument in there, but his changeup generated a .241 wOBA and 27 percent whiff rate across 788 pitches, and his last ten outings produced a 2.30 ERA.

He is reportedly open to returning to San Diego. That is the single most important sentence of the Padres' offseason, because the alternative is another hole in a rotation that cannot afford one.

What the rotation actually looks like

San Diego's team ERA in 2026 was 3.88. Robbie Ray provided volume — 165.2 innings, 3.59 ERA, 13 wins — but walked 84. Walker Buehler soaked up 153.2 innings at 4.63. JP Sears made six starts with a 4.68 ERA in 32.2 innings. Joe Musgrove is among the names cited as returning. Lucas Giolito finished the year on the 60-day injured list, alongside Bryan Hoeing, Ramón Laureano, Luis Rengifo and Rodolfo Durán.

That's a staff with recognizable names and very little certainty, which is precisely why the reporting out of San Diego this week has centered on starting pitching as the club's most urgent offseason need — ahead of bullpen help, first base and left field.

New owners, new promises

The context around all of this is ownership. Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano have publicly vowed to do what it takes to win a World Series, per CBS Sports — a promise made against a backdrop of payroll declining every year since Peter Seidler's death. A.J. Preller now operates under a mandate that sounds expensive.

If King's opt-out is exercised, the rotation conversation gets materially worse and the front office's to-do list grows by one No. 1-caliber arm in a market that never discounts them. If he stays, Preller can spend his winter on depth rather than triage — on a first baseman (Ty France made a strong case for a new deal after joining on a minor league contract), on left field, and on a bullpen that leaned hard on Mason Miller's 1.67 ERA and 38 saves.

There are internal reasons for optimism. Ethan Salas hit .256 with two homers in a 16-game cameo and looks like the 2027 Opening Day catcher. Fernando Tatis Jr. posted a .289/.358/.470 line with 25 homers and 38 steals. Manny Machado's bat slumped to a .217 average, though his +10 outs above average led all big league third basemen — and somehow didn't earn him a Gold Glove finalist nod.

But the lineup questions are secondary. The 2026 Padres won 91 games and still finished nine behind the Dodgers, and they exited the postseason because they scored one run in a win-or-go-home game. The rotation got them there. Whether Michael King is in it next April determines how far they go next October.