Padres nearly pulled off another pitching move before landing Michael King

A.J. Preller might tell you the Padres feel good about the top of the rotation now, but the paper trail says he may not be done shopping. Before Michael King was back in the mix, San Diego took a real run at another established starter — and the fact that it was an NL West arm makes it even more telling.

The Athletic's Dennis Lin stated that the Padres had made a "competitive" bid on right-handed pitcher Merrill Kelly prior to getting King. Kelly ended up returning to Arizona after signing a two year, $40 million dollar contract with the Diamondbacks.

Padres’ Merrill Kelly pursuit proves A.J. Preller stayed aggressive on pitching

This is interesting from the Padres side of this situation; Ken Rosenthal states that Kelly also received a three year contract from a west coast team valued at over $50 million. We do not know for certain which team it was, however, if Lin stated the Padres were competitive, then we can draw some conclusions.

The point isn’t that San Diego missed out. The point is what it says about the plan.

Preller publicly indicated he feels good about the top of the rotation once King was in the fold alongside Nick Pivetta and Joe Musgrove.  But the Kelly pursuit tells you the Padres weren’t just fishing for innings-eaters or “depth.” They were shopping in the aisle reserved for starters you trust in October — the steady, battle-tested kind who don’t implode the minute the schedule turns into Dodgers/Giants/D-backs roulette.

The Padres have been building this team in an aggressive way for several seasons, and it fits into that approach to find as many legitimate starting pitching options as possible to build a rotation that can be successful even if no one is at full strength. Depth is nice, but San Diego’s been chasing something more specific: a rotation that can still function like a contender even when nobody’s operating at 100 percent.

That’s what makes Michael King’s three-year, $75 million deal such a massive add. But the Merrill Kelly near-miss is the sneaky part — not because they failed to land him, but because it shows how far Preller was willing to go to keep upgrading. Even with King in place, the Padres clearly weren’t browsing. They are trying to take another bite out of the top of the market and leave the rest of the NL West dealing with it.