Could Michael King’s upcoming free agency reunite him with the Yankees?

NEW YORK — Yankees right-hander Clarke Schmidt was curious who he was set to face on Tuesday for his fourth start of the year, so he checked the Major League Baseball app, but all he saw were the letters "TBD." Not long after, he received a text from a former teammate and good friend. 

"So … you just wanted to face me," Padres right-hander Michael King said in a text to Schmidt. Schmidt responded, "I guess I gotta lock in a little bit more now."

King and Schmidt, who came up through the Yankees minor-league system together, dueled for six innings in the Bronx. They each allowed a pair of earned runs and exited the mound with the game tied at two apiece. Besides a solo shot from Aaron Judge and an RBI single from Jasson Dominguez, King looked terrific in his first start against his former team, who would then roll to a 12-3 win thanks to a 10-run 7th inning. 

It was the first time King pitched in the Bronx since he was shipped to the Padres as the centerpiece of the Juan Soto trade in 2023.

"He’s ascended to one of the top starters in the game," Yankees skipper Aaron Boone said of King after Tuesday's win.

In December 2023, the Yankees were putting the finishing touches on the blockbuster trade for Soto. The deal was close to done, but New York was reluctant to give up King, a talented reliever who had developed into an essential piece of its pitching staff. 

The Padres wouldn’t budge. Just like the Yankees, San Diego had big plans to promote King from a high-leverage reliever to a top-end starting pitcher. As tough as it was for the Yankees to part ways with King, they needed Soto more. So King and four other players in the Yankees system departed for San Diego, while Soto and outfielder Trent Grisham came to the Bronx. 

King has flourished in brown pinstripes and will be one of the most coveted starting pitchers in the free agency market after the season. The 29-year-old boasts a 2.80 ERA in 218.1 innings and 38 starts for the Padres, including a 2.22 ERA across eight starts this year.

The Yankees need to reinforce their rotation as ace Gerrit Cole’s rehab from Tommy John surgery will extend into next season. King has always seemed like the answer, and in a handful of months, the Yankees will have the opportunity to bring him back to the Bronx.

King said he’s open to a reunion with the Yankees, but if he keeps pitching like this, they can expect a bidding war for the Rochester, New York product.

"Hopefully by the end of it," King said, "I can have all 30 teams calling me."

In that scenario, it’s fair to say that the Yankees will have an advantage. King loved his time in New York; he posted a 2.60 ERA with 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings in his final two years with the Yankees. He became an irreplaceable part of the pitching staff across that stretch, interchanging between an effective high-leverage reliever and a starting pitcher with maximum potential to develop into one of the game’s best arms. 

From the Yankees' perspective, they loved that King was unflappable in the Bronx. Over the years, the organization has seen too many pitchers crumble under the bright lights. Being successful in New York’s cutthroat environment is an accomplishment in itself. 

"A lot easier playing with him than playing against him," Schmidt said of King. "Great pitcher, great person. I can’t speak highly enough of him and everything that he’s done for this organization and for myself. Hopefully, somewhere down the line we can reunite, but it’s a lot of fun being able to compete with him as well. We’re both very competitive. It’s kind of like playing with one of your brothers in the backyard."

To be clear, King is enjoying his time in San Diego, too. He appreciated that the Padres gave him a long leash during his first year transitioning into a full-time starter, allowing him to make 30 starts and record a career-high 173.2 innings in 2024. That trust led to King receiving down-ballot votes for the National League Cy Young award last year. And he hasn’t missed a step this season. King’s 2.22 ERA ranks fifth in the NL, and his 44.2 innings are ranked eighth. 

Both the Yankees and the Padres should be highly interested in King’s services for the long-term future, but it’ll cost them. The righty earns just under $8 million this year, but his market value, according to Spotrac, is closer to $18 million. If he continues his dominance this season, the bidding war for King could reach up to a total of $100 million on a multi-year contract.  

A trade for King is all but certainly out of the question as the Padres remain a competitive force in the NL West. They enter Wednesday just a half-game behind the league-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. For now, all King cares about is carrying San Diego into the postseason and going from there. King picked up how to handle approaching free agency after he watched Judge navigate his walk-year with the Yankees. 

"[Judge’s] whole thing was he’s gonna make the person next to him the best player that they can be and all he’s gonna do is try to care about wins," King said. "And once you finish 162 or hopefully more in the playoffs, then you can actually look up and figure out what’s happening in free agency. So I’m taking it game by game, trying to make every starter around me as good as they can be and trying to win as many games as possible."

Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. Follow her on X at @DeeshaThosar.