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According to two sources with knowledge of the teams' conversations, the Chicago Cubs are among the handful of teams who have inquired about the possibility of acquiring San Diego Padres starter Michael King. The two sides have touched base about multiple potential deals this winter, as the Padres try to navigate a uniquely confining combination of big offseason needs and a budget that needs to be slashed in response to both shrinking television revenues and the altered, uncertain ownership situation of the team.
King, 29, will be eligible to reach free agency at the end of 2025. He was the Padres' biggest get in the Juan Soto trade last winter, but is available again now, not only because the team has a general need to cut salary but because he and the team have not yet settled on a salary for this season. They exchanged arbitration figures of $8.8 million (the player) and $7.325 million (the team) earlier this month, and the lack of cost certainty is especially unwelcome for San Diego at the moment. President of baseball operations A.J. Preller is tasked with cutting the team's payroll enough to get them under the lowest competitive-balance tax threshold for this season, which stands at $241 million. They're currently just under $247 million, using the midpoint between King's and the club's number to project his earnings, meaning they need to cut significantly—because they also find themselves essentially without a starting catcher or a credible left fielder, and would like to add another starting pitcher to make themselves credible contenders in the NL West.
Given that long shopping list and their financial shortfall, Preller has been patient this winter, knowing all along he would need to get aggressive in the endgame of the offseason. If the team had successfully wooed Roki Sasaki, their offseason could have assumed a slightly different shape, but in the 10 days since he made his decision, Preller has circled back to several teams with whom he had more general discussions earlier to take a harder look at certain options.
King's name is relatively new to the list of players the team has made available, joining more expensive and more oft-bandied options Luis Arraez ($14 million), Dylan Cease ($13.75 million) and Robert Suarez ($10 million). It's unlikely that the Padres will trade all four, but trading one or two seems "almost inevitable," according to one source familiar with the club's thinking. It's possible that three of the quartet will be shipped out, as Preller tries to amass a huge amount of viable big-league talent while maintaining financial flexibility and capturing long-term team control. Preller's advantages, now, are that all four players have garnered at least some interest, and that he has five open 40-man roster spots to play with, at a juncture of the winter when most teams are struggling to consolidate overloaded rosters.
Arraez and Suarez have much less trade value than Cease and King, however, and might net Preller nothing more than freedom from the obligation to pay them. Arraez's 2024 marked his third straight batting title, but it also saw him evolve ever more into a one-dimensional singles hitter, without even enough walks to make his on-base percentage as his batting average. Suarez, meanwhile, has not only that eight-figure salary for 2025, but player options he can trigger for 2026 and 2027. He's already in his mid-30s, making many teams raise an eyebrow at that contract structure.
One version of a deal the Cubs and Padres have explored could send King and Suarez to Chicago, with multiple young, controllable pieces going back to San Diego. Javier Assad, Ben Brown, and Kevin Alcántara are potential pieces in a return. One way or another, the deal would probably include players with MLB experience and/or those very close to the majors, like those three, as opposed to far-off prospects. That would align with Preller's goal of staying competitive while escaping the financial purgatory into which his past willingness to lock into long-term deals (and the death of free-spending former owner Peter Seidler) have pushed him. It could also mean netting the Cubs a freed-up roster spot, an important consideration given that they currently have two pending moves (the Jon Berti signing and the Ryan Pressly trade) and a full 40-man roster that doesn;t count either of them.
In another scenario (less exciting for Cubs fans, but perhaps more probable), the Padres might connect with the Twins on a trade to bring in catcher Christian Vázquez, with the Cubs acquiring Suarez in a three-team arrangement to make the money work. That possibility underscores something that has slipped past the notice of many fans this winter, largely because it makes such a poor match with the broader narratives about the team: the Cubs are one of the few teams able and willing to add money this winter, even if much of that is because of the money that came off their books in the fall. It was Chicago's willingness to pay when others weren't that facilitated their trades for Kyle Tucker and Ryan Pressly, from Houston, in addition to their handful of small free-agent additions. Now, late in the winter, they're positioned to land another player or two at what they might consider an unusually palatable cost in talent, largely because they have financial freedom that their trade partners lack. The Twins are in a less extreme version of the Padres' situation, so any trade that sends Vázquez from one place to the other is likely to require someone to act as an intermediary—a money sink.
If the Cubs do land King, look for them to broach a long-term extension with him in spring training. That's still several twists of the drama from now, but the team has liked King for years, dating back to his time with the Yankees. Because he's bloomed late and dealt with injury issues after being a late-round pick with a small initial signing bonus, King (unlike Tucker, or Cease, for that matter) is a good candidate for an extension even a year out from free agency. He had a 2.95 ERA in 173 1/3 innings in 2024, well-supported by his peripheral numbers, and the Cubs love his arsenal. They might be willing to pay more for him than they would for Cease, not only because he'd cost them less in 2025 monetarily, but because they would view King as a possible long-term piece.
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