SAN DIEGO -- If it wasn’t obvious before, it should be now: The Padres need starting pitching. Badly.
Both Dylan Cease and Michael King declined their qualifying offers ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, as was largely expected. They’re now full-fledged free agents, and if they sign elsewhere, the Padres would receive Draft compensation.
This year’s qualifying offer was $22.025 million. Because Cease and King turned down that one-year contract, San Diego would receive a pair of Draft picks if they do not return -- but because the team exceeded the Competitive Balance Tax in the 2025 season, those picks would come after the fourth round.
Signings & Trades
• Latest free-agent and trade rumors
• Top 30 free agents | Every free agent, by position
• Tracking every team's offseason moves
• FA guides: Tucker | Bregman | Schwarber | Valdez | Alonso
• Offseason dates, rules & terms explained
Neither of the decisions comes as a surprise. If anything, Tuesday simply further spotlighted the Padres’ need in the rotation. Yu Darvish is already slated to miss the 2026 season after undergoing surgery on his right elbow on Oct. 29.
“Every year, every team in here is talking about starting pitching,” A.J. Preller said last week from the General Managers Meetings at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. “But especially with King and Cease in free agency and Darvish’s injury, it’s probably our top need going into the offseason.”
King and Cease are coming off down years, relatively speaking. Cease made 32 starts but posted a 4.55 ERA. King was limited to just 15 starts due to injury, and although he notched a solid 3.44 ERA, he largely struggled after returning late in the season.
Nonetheless, the two righties figure to be among the most sought-after arms on the open market. They both finished in the top seven in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2024, and both are in their prime. Cease is 29 years old; King is 30.
They arrived in separate trades before the 2024 season and helped to stabilize the San Diego rotation in a major way. Now, the Padres are looking for that level of rotation stability once again.
Nick Pivetta returns as the presumed No. 1 starter, and Joe Musgrove is due back from Tommy John surgery. Beyond that, there are major question marks and at least two open places in the rotation, with Randy Vásquez set to factor in somewhere toward the back end.
It seems unlikely that Cease or King would occupy one of those spots. The cost of starting pitching on the free-agent market is high, and the Padres seem likely to search for, say, their next Nick Pivetta -- a more unheralded arm they feel they can elevate into a front-of-the-rotation weapon.
Beyond King and Cease, no other Padres were tendered qualifying offers 12 days ago. Closer Robert Suarez and first baseman Luis Arraez were viewed as candidates. Suarez seems unlikely to re-sign, given the depth in the San Diego bullpen. An Arraez reunion remains possible, according to Preller, even after the team opted not to extend him a qualifying offer.
“I know Luis likes San Diego,” Preller said. “He’ll be somebody we have some more conversations about.”