The Yankees' 2023 season will have been a real disaster by the organization's standards. Despite an 82-80 record, the team looked completely dead, especially on offense.
In fact, Gerrit Cole got a Cy Young and Aaron Judge has been healthy dominant… but otherwise, aside from a few moments, it's been a pain overall.
In the middle of August, therefore, the club season was Not bad finished, so the Yankees tried some experiments. Of the lot, Michael King, one of the team's big relievers, was sent into the rotation to see how he would perform as a starting pitcher.
King was already accustomed to throwing several innings in relief, and he had been a starting pitcher in the minors, so the gamble was interesting.
And in the end, the results were… very impressive. In eight starts, he maintained a 1.88 ERA, striking out 48 batters and allowing just nine walks.
Clearly, therefore, the preliminary results suggested that King had potential as a starting pitcher in 2024…
And the Padres understood that.
While the club was trying to trade Juan Soto, it had clearly targeted King as an option for a trade with the Yankees.
And in the end, King was the centerpiece (along with prospect Drew Thorpe) of the Soto trade.
And when I look at all of this, I can't help but say to myself that if the Yankees hadn't made the decision to send King into the rotation at the end of the season, Juan Soto would not have headed to the Bronx yesterday.
Because aside from Gerrit Cole (who was not going to be traded), no pitcher on the Yankees has the value that King had. And King would never have had this value if he had remained a reliever.
I don't know who made this decision at the Yankees, but it was the basis for the arrival of a generational hitter in the Bronx in Juan Soto.
We sometimes highlight the bad shots of the Yankees (and, especially, of Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman), but on this one, it's a victory all round for the Bombers.
