Cardinals linked to 3.00 ERA pitcher for potential ideal free agent match

The 2026 season has been a resounding success for the St. Louis Cardinals, but it's not about this season for Chaim Bloom; it's about the future.

It's clear the Cardinals need to upgrade their starting rotation, and they can do so starting this offseason in free agency. Fortunately, there is an ideal option who might become available, and if he does, the Cardinals would be a realistic landing spot.

CBS Sports' Mike Axisa named the Cardinals as a landing spot for potential free agent starter Michael King of the San Diego Padres. So long as he opts out of his $75M three-year deal, he'll be an ideal target this winter for the Cardinals.

Cardinals linked to Michael King for what would be an ideal free agent target

"His five-pitch arsenal (sinker, four-seamer, sweeper, slider, changeup) and command suggest a graceful decline lies ahead, plus King is big-market and postseason battle-tested," Axisa writes. "... Super early possible landing spots: Astros, Cardinals."

St. Louis could use some help in their rotation, and a quality veteran starter like King would fit the bill. He's the kind of pitcher who, even though he'll regress, won't have a drastic and negative fall-off.

Even if he does take a step back over the years, it won't likely be such a detrimental falloff that the Cardinals, or any team that signs him in free agency, would regret adding him.

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This season for the Padres, King has a 3.00 ERA. Since he will have a player option for 2027, the only way the Cardinals could actually land King is if he opts out of his current deal.

That would also likely mean the Cardinals would have to spend more than $25 million per-year on King, as that's his current deal's AAV.

While it's too early to tell what King will decide, and whether the Cardinals would even be interested in spending so much on a 31-year-old starting pitcher, if they do want a veteran, King might be the Cardinals' ideal option.

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