Breaking: Orioles Named Best Fit for Padres Star Pitcher – Can The Orioles Really Land The Padres Ace?
A lot of attention has been placed on the Baltimore Orioles pitching staff heading into spring training and rightfully so.
They received a lot of scrutiny for how they handled the offseason when it came to their starting rotation. Their ace, Corbin Burnes, departed in free agency, signing a six-year, $210 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Instead of going to the top of the market to replace him with another ace-caliber pitcher, they opted to add complementary depth pieces to the mix.
Charlie Morton and Tomoyuki Sugano were both signed to one-year deals to fill out the rotation behind Grayson Rodriguez and Zach Eflin.
The Orioles have created an impressive amount of starting pitching depth, as they also have Dean Kremer, Trevor Rogers, Chayce McDermott, Cade Povich and Albert Suarez. At some point during the 2025 season, injured pitchers Tyler Wells and Kyle Bradish will be back in the mix, too.
It is certainly a risk going into the season with Rodriguez, Eflin, Morton, Sugano and Kremer as their staff. Not only is the group lacking any diversity as they are all right-handed, but the lack of a prototypical ace is alarming.
Can that group go toe-to-toe with the likes of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in their own division, let alone other American League contenders who are loaded with top-of-the-line starting pitchers?
Baltimore sure seems like they are willing to find out and let things play out during the campaign.
But, they should not pass up the opportunity to make a trade should one pop up.
One team that they should be in contact with is the San Diego Padres.
Dylan Cease has been linked to the Orioles as a potential trade target in recent weeks, but it is Michael King who Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report believes is the ideal fit for the AL East contenders.
“The same teams that have kicked the tires on Cease also make sense for King, though it’s the Orioles who are the best fit for him on paper,” he wrote.
King was one of the key pieces in the trade package from the New York Yankees out west in the Juan Soto blockbuster. He improved his value, turning in a true breakout campaign.
In 31 appearances, 30 of which were starts, he threw 173.2 innings and registered an impressive 2.95 ERA with 201 strikeouts.
He has improved his numbers each year since a rocky rookie campaign in 2020 and is one of the better starting pitchers in baseball.
King may not have the name recognition of some of the other pitchers available on the trade market, such as Cease or Luis Castillo of the Seattle Mariners, but he has proven to be just as productive.
His 4.2 WAR in 2024 was actually better than Burnes, who had a 3.4, as he would present Baltimore with a massive upgrade for their rotation without breaking the bank. He is owed $7.8 million in his last campaign under team control.
