The New York Yankees might be reuniting with one of the best right-handed pitchers that they have developed in recent memory. According to the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham, Michael King, who became one of the best starters in the National League in 2024, before having an injury-laden season last year, is down to three finalists. All of them are teams in the American League East.

“Free agent righthander Michael King has narrowed his choices to the Orioles, Red Sox, and Yankees, a major league source told the Globe on Sunday, and wants to make a decision soon,” Abraham writes. “King, 30, was 18-12 with a 3.10 earned run average and 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings the last two seasons for the Padres.”

King, a Boston College graduate who also played in the Cape Cod league, can either continue those New England ties with the Red Sox or return to the organization that developed him and then made him the centerpiece of the Juan Soto trade. Then there are the Baltimore Orioles. They recently made a big splash with Pete Alonso and look to add to a talented young roster that severely underperformed in 2025.

Unless the Yankees go down the trade route, King is the second-best pitcher available on the free agent market, behind Tatsuya Imai. Signing either would be playing to the team’s biggest strength: their wallet.

Going Down the Free Agent Route

The Yankees have been linked to the likes of MacKenzie Gore and Sandy Alcantara this winter. Both would bolster their rotation, but it would require Brian Cashman to unload prospects from his farm system. While King does come with a qualifying offer, and the team signing him would have to surrender a draft pick to the Padres, paying a player is much cleaner than offloading young, controllable players to acquire an arm.

For one, if the Yankees pay King or Imai, they can still use those prospects down the line to bolster the roster further, either in the winter or in the summer at the trade deadline. It’s how a team with financial might should operate, after all.

King’s Pedigree

While King found great success as a reliever in New York, it’s his emergence as a starter that has made him so highly coveted in free agency. In 322.2 innings and 64 games as a starter, King has a 3.35 ERA.

His 2024 was masterful. He had 201 strikeouts in 173.2 innings. His dominance wasn’t just about his swing-and-miss stuff, either. Hitters had an average exit velocity of 85.7 MPH when they did make contact that season. According to Baseball Savant, that low exit velo was in the 99th percentile in baseball.

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