Could Michael King’s upcoming free agency reunite him with the Yankees?

NEW YORK — Yankees right-hander Clarke Schmidt was curious who he was set to face on Tuesday for his fourth start of the year, so he checked the Major League Baseball app, but all he saw were the letters "TBD." Not long after, he received a text from a former teammate and good friend. 

"So … you just wanted to face me," Padres right-hander Michael King said in a text to Schmidt. Schmidt responded, "I guess I gotta lock in a little bit more now."

King and Schmidt, who came up through the Yankees minor-league system together, dueled for six innings in the Bronx. They each allowed a pair of earned runs and exited the mound with the game tied at two apiece. Besides a solo shot from Aaron Judge and an RBI single from Jasson Dominguez, King looked terrific in his first start against his former team, who would then roll to a 12-3 win thanks to a 10-run 7th inning. 

It was the first time King pitched in the Bronx since he was shipped to the Padres as the centerpiece of the Juan Soto trade in 2023.

"He’s ascended to one of the top starters in the game," Yankees skipper Aaron Boone said of King after Tuesday's win.

In December 2023, the Yankees were putting the finishing touches on the blockbuster trade for Soto. The deal was close to done, but New York was reluctant to give up King, a talented reliever who had developed into an essential piece of its pitching staff. 

The Padres wouldn’t budge. Just like the Yankees, San Diego had big plans to promote King from a high-leverage reliever to a top-end starting pitcher. As tough as it was for the Yankees to part ways with King, they needed Soto more. So King and four other players in the Yankees system departed for San Diego, while Soto and outfielder Trent Grisham came to the Bronx.