Michael King looks to do 180 with Padres following trade from Yankees

Michael King was shocked to be traded by the Yankees in December.

But he quickly assessed that he was going to the right place.

When Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller called King the night of the trade, Preller asked whether he preferred being a starter to being a reliever. (Preller already knew the answer, but King was grateful to give him a resounding yes.)

A short while later, King spoke with a friend and mentor about Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla.

“My first call about Ruben was with Corey Kluber,” King said. “He told me he would not have two Cy Youngs without Ruben. Immediately, that makes me really confident going into it.”

The day after the trade, King asked Niebla over the phone — an introductory conversation that lasted about 90 minutes in all — what his philosophy was regarding King making a massive jump in innings.

Recalled King: “He said, ‘Listen, we’re gonna be making sure you’re OK. We’re gonna see if your arm slot starts to drop, if velo starts to drop or you’re communicating that your body is not feeling great. And then we can take the proper measures of making sure we get a little reset and then you’re strong for August, September.’”

This was all sweet music to King, who spent his time with the Yankees mostly as a reliever. And while his move to the rotation likely was imminent in New York, too, King believes it probably would have looked different than it has a chance to be with the Padres.

“The Yankees are very — I don’t know if analytical is the right word or if scientific is the right word or if statistical is the right word — but they wanted to be very cautious with guys that go ‘X’ amount over the innings count they had the year before,” King said. “And I didn’t want that.”

Michael King pitches during spring training workouts.

(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

What King, who threw a career-high 104 innings in 2023, wants is to pitch at least 180 innings in his first season with the Padres.

Yes. He has no qualms about saying it. Frequently.

“I keep telling Ruben whenever he says like 150 to 180, I’m like ‘Nope, 180 to 200,’” said King, who is scheduled to make his Cactus league debut Monday.
“... I think the most value that a starter brings is innings. Especially as a guy like me. Obviously, I want to be a top-end starter. But right now I’m behind (Yu) Darvish and (Joe) Musgrove. So my role here is to make sure that I’m providing enough innings for this team — whether it’s to help the bullpen or whatever — to be behind these guys, learn from these guys and eventually hope to be one of those guys. But for now, it’s like if a No. 3 starter can give you 180 innings, I think you’re in a pretty good spot as a team.

“Especially with how our fourth or fifth job could be a really young guy. You don’t know what you’re gonna get out of them. So if I can get that consistency — six innings every time out — I’d be very happy.”

Well, sure.

The Padres traded Juan Soto because they needed to shed payroll commitments and add innings. They lost three-fifths of their starting rotation and tireless swingman Nick Martinez to free agency. So they parlayed Soto and Trent Grisham into King and fellow pitchers Jhony Brito, Drew Thorpe and Randy Vásquez, plus catcher Kyle Higashioka.

King was crucial to the deal for what he is being asked to do, which is go from being a part-time starter to a full-time starter on a staff that absolutely needs that to be a successful transition.

It should be considered at least advantageous that he is following in the recently laid footsteps of another pitcher who came from New York to be in the Padres rotation after serving mostly as a reliever.

San Diego Padres pitcher Michael King.

(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

King learned early in that first conversation with Niebla about what the Padres got from Seth Lugo in 2023.

Lugo signed with the Padres after seven seasons with the Mets. A starter earlier in his career, Lugo had worked exclusively out of the bullpen in 2021 and ‘22 and had not thrown more than 80 innings in a season since 2018.

He made 26 starts for the Padres, posting a 3.57 ERA over 146⅓ innings. That was two more innings than he had thrown in the previous three seasons combined.

Now, 180 innings would likely require King never missing time, as Lugo did with a calf strain early in the summer, which allowed for a helpful reset. It would mean King, who has gone six innings in two of his 19 career starts and just twice thrown even 98 pitches in an MLB game, would need to do those things with regularity.

There seems no doubt to King that he can mimic Lugo’s arc.

“Lugo went from 60-something to 140, 150,” King said. “So if I do that 90-inning jump, I’m perfect.”

Lugo went from 65 to 146⅓, an increase of 81 innings. But the point remains valid.

Most pitchers who reach 180 innings in a season — 27 of them last season, 25 in 2022 — do so after a somewhat gradual buildup to throwing around 130 to 140 innings the prior season. But a handful who have thrown 180 innings in recent seasons did so by making a jump of 70 or more innings, year over year. However, most of those had thrown 130 or more between the major and minor leagues in the previous two years.

It has been a while since King threw more than 104 innings. He totaled 161 as a starter between three minor-league levels in 2018. He passed 130 in 2016 and ’17 as well.

“It’s going to be up to him — his level of preparation, his routines,” Niebla said. “It’s his communication with us. It’s his ability to say I’m going to go (fewer) throws in between outings. And then for us, it’s trusting the objective information and what’s showing up there — fastball velocity, fastball command. Command comes first. Command is the first thing that will leave. And then velocity. And then the level of effectiveness overall.”

Lugo credited Niebla with not instituting limits and being innovative and collaborative alongside him last season. Niebla recalls working with Lugo as one of the best parts of his job in 2023.

“He really did a nice job with communicating, and he really did a nice job with his routines,” Niebla said. “(It was) his overall demeanor of like, ‘I’m gonna do this and I have to check this box, this box and this box.’”

Michael King warms up before live batting practice on Feb. 17.

(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

King underwent surgery in July 2022 to repair a fractured elbow, but there has been no apparent detriment since the procedure.

“Knock on wood, I was awesome last year; I felt great,” said King, who had a 2.75 ERA and 127 strikeouts in ’23. “... I think I was having a nagging bone injury for a long time. I even had it in college, and I think it popped up in ‘19. I think it was just something that almost needed to go, and now that I have hardware in there to protect me, I have all the confidence in the world that it’s gonna last me for the rest of my career.”

And by virtually every account, the things said about King’s mindset, work ethic and understanding of his own arsenal and of hitters’ strengths and weaknesses is akin to that of Lugo.

“First of all, the pitch package is pretty conducive to getting guys out two or three times in the same game,” Higashioka said. “And his stuff is nasty. Everybody knows that. As far as intangibles are concerned, he’s a hard worker, he has a great idea of what he needs to do to be successful, and he’s good at implementing that. It’s just the aptitude for the game that sets him apart.”