The Boston Red Sox were one of the teams that were linked to veteran starting pitcher Michael King in free agency, but he will not be a member of the organization in 2026.

King, who pitched at Boston College and is from Rhode Island, got a lot of buzz around the Red Sox fanbase this past weekend. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe set off the powder keg by reporting that the Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Baltimore Orioles were competing for King’s services. Obviously, this led to a million reports both in Boston’s favor and against in the following days. But none of these three teams actually landed King.

Reports surfaced on Thursday that the San Diego Padres are bringing King back and the club confirmed the news on Friday.

Now, obviously, this isn’t the Red Sox landing another high-end starting pitcher. But, here’s why this is the type of news that should give Boston fans some hope. Who saw King going back to the Padres? Pretty much nobody. There are reports out there all over the place that the Red Sox and Yankees even had the edge over the Orioles for King, but here we are. None of the three got him. This is just a perfect example of what the MLB offseason is.

There’s plenty of time leftEmpty heading

Rumors swirl all the time and in the end of the day, the vast majority of them never even come to fruition. Right now, there’s a lot of negative noise out there when it comes to Alex Bregman. The Arizona Diamondbacks reportedly are in the sweepstakes for him, but nothing has happened. Bregman is a free agent. Sure, there can be rumors and noise linking him to any team under the sun. But it doesn’t matter until he actually signs a deal.

Reports pointed to King leaving the Padres with the Red Sox and Yankees viewed most favorably. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported on Friday that New York didn’t even make an offer. So, when it comes specifically to the Bregman sweepstakes, take this as a sign to take the vast majority of rumors with a grain of salt until a deal gets done.