SAN DIEGO — About 10 days ago, Michael King began to look at the Padres’ schedule to find out whether he might actually get to face his old team.
If not for some rain in Atlanta last weekend, which jumbled the rotation and bumped him back a day, King may have just gotten his wish.
Instead, King was left trying to help out on scouting reports of his former teammates with the Yankees in town this weekend for the first time since the right-hander was the headliner of the package going back to the Padres in the Juan Soto blockbuster.
“Pretty disappointed [not to be facing the Yankees],” King said Friday afternoon. “I think it would have been fun. I was telling [pitching coach Ruben Niebla], I was begging to change the rotation around once we had that rainout. But it’s also — they’re a very, very good team, so maybe it wouldn’t have gone so well. It would have been a great challenge but I think it would have been fun to see a lot of my friends in the box. But it’ll be just as fun to root against them from the dugout.”
While King was sad to leave the Yankees and the friendships he had built in New York, getting traded to the Padres also solidified the opportunity for him to be a full-time starting pitcher this season.
The Yankees moved King from the bullpen to the rotation last August, partly out of necessity because of injuries, and the right-hander thrived, posting a 1.88 ERA across eight starts to end the season.
The team had planned on giving him a chance to remain in the rotation this year — though it was not guaranteed as the Yankees also pursued external starting pitching — before including him as the centerpiece of the deal to land Soto in December.
The trade ended up taking a few days longer to be completed than it could have because the Yankees were trying to find a way to not include King, Aaron Boone said Friday.
But the Padres were adamant that King, who turned 29 on Saturday, had to be in it.
“He was hard to let go of, but we also understood it was going to hurt a little bit to get a guy like Juan Soto,” Boone said before the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Padres on Saturday night. “Feel like we did the right thing, but definitely hard when you part with someone that we feel as highly as we do about Michael and frankly the other guys they got in the deal with Higgy [Kyle Higashioka] and [Randy] Vasquez and [Jhony] Brito. A lot to give up, but it’s Juan Soto.”
In 10 starts for the Padres, King has posted a 4.06 ERA with 62 strikeouts, 25 walks and 11 home runs allowed across 57 ²/₃ innings.
That has included starts where he has been dominant — like striking out 11 across seven shutout innings against the Dodgers on May 10 — and others where he has taken his lumps.
“It’s definitely a learning curve going back to the rotation,” King said. “Obviously I want to be a starter and I still feel like I am a starter. It’s great to have — I credit a lot to Ruben, our pitching coach, because he’s coached like five different Cy Youngs. He knows how to manage and build a full season. So there are some lessons that I’ve learned as a starter that I had to get out of the bullpen mentality or have a different approach based on doing the best to make sure the team has a chance to win. So I think that’s plagued me a little bit.”
One of the biggest adjustments for King has been learning how to settle into a game when he gives up early runs, since as a reliever if he gave up runs the game might have been over.
There has also been an off-the-field adjustment process for King, who is getting used to the slower-pace lifestyle in San Diego.
He misses his friends, the Italian food in New York and the close proximity to his family, but he is also relishing the chance he always wanted to be a full-time starter.
“Obviously I loved my time with the Yankees,” King said. “[The trade] was bittersweet in the moment, but now it’s just a great opportunity.”
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