Padres right-hander Michael King declined his side of a mutual option, making him a free agent, sources told MLB.com on Sunday.
King, who spent the past two seasons in San Diego after arriving in the Juan Soto trade, is owed a $3.75 million buyout, rather than the $15 million he would have received if he accepted the option.
The decision is an expected one. The more intriguing steps in the process come next. The Padres will have until Thursday to decide whether they will give King a qualifying offer — worth $22.05 million for the upcoming offseason. King would then have a week to decide whether he would accept.
King would presumably receive a more substantial deal on the free-agent market, so there seems to be a good chance he would decline that qualifying offer as well. If so, the Padres would receive a compensatory Draft pick — after the fourth round because they exceeded the luxury tax in 2025.
The team is facing the same decision with fellow right-hander Dylan Cease, who is also a free agent. Cease would also seem likely to decline a qualifying offer. Though, with both righties, there’s a small possibility they’d accept, looking to use the qualifying offer as a one-year prove-it deal, after both posted subpar years in 2025.
For King, his struggles were mostly tied to injuries. He missed nearly 3 1/2 months over the summer — first with a long thoracic nerve issue that affected his right shoulder strength, then with a knee injury when he attempted to ramp up too quickly. King, the team’s Opening Day starter, would nonetheless finish with a 3.44 ERA across 15 starts.
If both Cease and King depart via free agency, the Padres will face serious question marks in their starting rotation. Nick Pivetta is back as the presumed ace, and Joe Musgrove is expected to return from Tommy John surgery. But beyond that, there is plenty of uncertainty.
Yu Darvish, with three years remaining on his contract, hasn’t settled on a definitive plan for his future. If he’s back for his age-39 season in 2026, he faces injury concerns, having missed nearly the entire first half with an elbow issue. Meanwhile, Randy Vásquez slots in as a back-end type starter, but the Padres are thin on their other depth options.
King joins a list of Padres free agents that also includes: Cease, Luis Arraez, Robert Suarez, Ryan O’Hearn, Jose Iglesias and Nestor Cortes.
