The Miami Marlins’ interest in Michael King is one of the more unusual reunion ideas on the board.
It’s fun to imagine, but hard to see actually happen.
King is a former Marlins draft pick, technically. But the organization that selected him is long gone, and Miami hasn’t spent aggressively in any sustained way since. Even now, with reports from The Athletic suggesting the club plans to be more active in free agency, most of the sport is taking the wait-and-see approach.
Spending real money means acting like a real contender, and the Marlins haven’t consistently lived in that neighborhood. King turned down a $22.025 million qualifying offer from San Diego, and signing him would cost Miami its third-highest draft pick in 2026. That’s a bold move for a team still watching its payroll hover around revenue-sharing minimums.
And yet… it would be pretty cool.
Miami finished strong in 2025, boosted by young pieces like Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee and Edward Cabrera. If ownership actually wanted to win, adding a rotation arm with King’s track record would be a statement. Since moving into a full-time starting role in late 2023, King has posted a 2.93 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 3.50 FIP across 53 starts — frontline numbers for a club that lives and dies with pitching.
Slotting King behind Sandy Alcantara, Cabrera and Eury Perez would give Miami a legitimate playoff-caliber rotation. It would also open the door to something more interesting: flipping young arms for bats. The Marlins badly need help at the infield corners, DH and right field, and using pitching depth as currency would finally address that lineup gap.
Is this front office ready to operate that boldly? It’s truly hard to believe until it happens.
But a reunion with King would at least push Miami toward a higher tier of ambition. And after years of dwelling in the basement, even that would feel like progress.
