Dylan Cease and Michael King, along with the other 11 MLB players who received qualifying offers from their respective teams, have less than 24 hours to accept the offer of a one-year contract at $22.025 million for the 2026 season. The deadline is set for Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The San Diego Padres extended offers to Cease and King, knowing that one or both would decline the offer and test the free agency market. The price of pitching seems to climb with every offseason and there is no reason to think this offseason will be any different.
Cease did not have his best showing in San Diego last year, finishing 8-12 with a 4.55 ERA in 32 starts. However, he took the mound every time his turn in the rotation came up and he amassed 215 strikeouts over 168 innings pitched. The durability and strikeout numbers have teams like the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets and Boston Red Sox, among others, wanting to add the right-hander to their rotation for the 2026 season and beyond. Cease is a client of agent Scott Boras and he is known in baseball for taking his players to market to maximize their value and potential earnings. Cease is expected to continue that trend and will be rewarded with a sizeable contract based on predictions from around baseball.
King also had a down year in San Diego, but it was under different circumstances than his rotation mate. King had problems with his health, which started with a pinched nerve in his shoulder and led to an issue in his knee. He only made 15 starts and compiled a record of 5-3 with a 3.44 ERA over 73.1 innings. King also threw the only complete game of the 2025 season for the Padres.
There is a world where a Padres fan could talk themselves into believing King would accept the qualifying offer to get a raise, come back and have a strong season, and then test free agency in 2027. Without an expected lockout prior to the 2027 season, this scenario would make sense, but it might behoove the right-hander to get the best contract he can this offseason.
Will that best offer come from San Diego? It seems unlikely based on the reported limited financial flexibility of the Padres, but it does not mean he could not accept the qualifying offer before the deadline and work with the Padres on a contract extension prior to the end of the 2026 season.
Quality pitching does not come cheap, and Padres President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller will have to get creative if Cease and King do not accept the qualifying offer, and he wants to bring either of them back to San Diego.
