The San Diego Padres had just one bright spot in a bleak starting rotation last season, and his name is Michael King. Of the many free agents that exist on the roster this offseason, the right arm of King may prove to be the most pivotal.

King's success amid a dreary rotation included a 3.21 ERA across a career-high 185 innings of work, a career-high bWAR of 4.3 and a career-high 32 starts. His dominance continued into the postseason where he allowed just one earned run in 14 innings (two starts and one relief appearance) along with 15 strikeouts to five walks.

Unfortunately, the talents of King will not be cheap.

King recently and unsurprisingly declined the final two years and $58 million on his deal, largely because he has been predicted to land a massive deal, with some projecting $140 million for the 31-year-old.

If King returns to San Diego, he will likely continue to be the ace of the rotation, but it no longer needs to be a struggling one. The Padres should be desperate to bring King back to, at the very least, maintain a rotation that would have been nonexistent last season without him.

To give president of baseball operations AJ Preller the benefit of the doubt, not many were forecasting Joe Musgrove to not return until the postseason (solely in a bullpen role, at that) plus right-hander Nick Pivetta missing nearly five months of action. Additionally, Walker Buehler, who started the season on a minor league contract, had an abysmal 5.36 ERA before the All-Star break that he lowered to a 3.62 mark in his final 13 starts of the regular season.

The necessary steps must be taken to avoid another nightmare for the starters, a nightmare that started to affect the bullpen as the season went on. Forcing the relievers to deliver the fourth-most innings in MLB led to them showing their weaknesses come postseason.

If King is brought back and pitches to his standard for a bulk of the rotation's innings once again, he can be the first move of revamping a pitching roster that would not be the same without him. In the event King is not brought back, a few mediocre pitchers to fill innings can very well have the same end result with the bullpen next October.

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