The New York Yankees have recovered nicely from losing Juan Soto to their crosstown rival, but there’s a clear area in need of improvement for this season and beyond.
Soto opted for a $765 million deal with the New York Mets this past winter, and the Yankees responded by trading for Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams and signing Paul Goldschmidt. Critically, the team also added southpaw Max Fried, who has become the team’s ace with Gerrit Cole out for the season.
But outside of Fried and Carlos Rodón, the Yankees have seen their starting pitchers struggle. And with Cole’s effective return up in the air, they could be looking to fortify their rotation at the trade deadline and in the next offseason.
Now, one of the best pitchers likely to hit the winter market has responded to a question about potentially joining the Yankees on a new contract.
“I mean, of course, once you get to free agency, that’s what I’ll start thinking about,” Michael King said, per Fireside Yankees. “I’ve got to focus on winning today… hopefully by the end of it I can have all 30 teams calling me.”
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King has been one of the best starters in all of baseball to open the 2025 season, with a 2.09 ERA and 46 strikeouts across seven starts. If and when he does reach free agency, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden has projected that he’ll be in line for a $182 million contract.
And the Yankees might be glad to hear he’s open to joining them for next year and beyond, as they’ve already had the chance to lock him in long term and chose not to. King pitched for the Yankees from 2019 to 2023, until the team traded him to the Padres as part of the deal to land Soto.
They could be giving him a call soon with a much different message.
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