Michael King is slowly shifting Juan Soto trade with Yankees in Padres' favor

San Diego Padres starter Michael King has been far from perfect since joining the team before the season. His fastball velocity has continued to tick downward this season and he has starts where he is just unable to command his stuff, leading to Padres fans wanting to pull their hair out.

However, there is no denying that when he is on, he is easily one of the Padres' best pitchers. After King's latest gem against Cleveland, it sure looks like that he is more than capable of overcoming his shortcomings and making the painful Juan Soto trade look a bit better for San Diego.

Michael King's recent run is taking the sting out of Padres' Juan Soto trade

This isn't an attempt at revisionism here. San Diego invested a lot to acquire Juan Soto and the bottom line is that the Padres only got a season and half from one of the best players in baseball for that investment. Losing a talent like Soto is still painful, and no one is arguing otherwise.

However, that doesn't mean that trading Soto before the 2024 season can't end up being a positive for the franchise going forward. King was a centerpiece of that deal, and after a bit of a rollercoaster season so far it really seems like he is settling into the rotation nicely with a 1.48 ERA, 26 strikeouts and just five walks over his last four starts (totaling 24.1 innings).

By any measure, that is frontline starter-level production. Once you look at what King has been able to accomplish, combined with Kyle Higashioka stepping up at catcher while Luis Campusano was out and Drew Thorpe being the key piece in to land Dylan Cease (who has also been awesome), trading Soto is looking more and more like the right decision for the Padres in the long-term. Soto being a pending a free agent who is going to get a huge deal from some team this coming offseason only reinforces the benefits of moving him when they did.

Would the Padres be a better team with Soto in their outfield right now? Almost certainly. However, San Diego was wise to try to plan for the future before the season by trading him away, and King's performance lately is just one reason why.

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