The Chicago Cubs are going to have to do a lot of rebuilding of their pitching infrastructure in 2027 and beyond.

After the disaster that was the 2026 season — whether it was injuries, trades that didn't pan out, or regression from former stars — it's now on Chicago's front office to be aggressive in pursuit of an elite rotation.

Following the Milwaukee Brewers' World Series triumph late Wednesday night, MLB free agency officially kicked off on Thursday, and there are some intriguing names going fishing for big contracts.

One of them is right-hander Michael King, who declined his player option with the San Diego Padres and will now test the market, per Jon Heyman.

King initially signed a three-year, $75 million extension with San Diego last December in a deal that included player options for the 2027 and 2028 seasons. He was part of the 2023 blockbuster trade package that sent Juan Soto to the New York Yankees.

The money was well-earned for the 31-year-old. In his first season with the Padres in 2024, he posted a 2.95 ERA in 173.2 innings and finished seventh in NL Cy Young Award voting. An injury-affected 2025 saw him pitch just 73.1 innings, but he returned healthy in 2026 to throw a career-high 185 innings along with a 3.21 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP.

Cubs fans will remember King as the guy who effectively shut the door on Chicago's 2026 season. He spun seven shutout innings — 6.1 of them hitless — in the Padres' 8-0 Game 1 rout in the NL Wild Card series.

King fits the mould of a pitcher that the Cubs have liked in the past: He induces a lot of soft contact on the ground and has an incredibly effective changeup. While his strikeout numbers dipped in 2026 (21%) after his injury-marred 2025, there's no reason he can't ramp back up to his 2024 clip of 27.7%.

King's fully healthy 2026 bodes well for his immediate future, and the Cubs' rotation needs a solid foundation.

As for the money, MLB Trade Rumors predicts King could be getting a multi-year deal valued at around $100 million. In the past, the Cubs have shied away from forking over long-term contracts and boatloads of money to pitchers. Matthew Boyd took a two-year, $29 million deal when he signed. Shota Imanaga's qualifying offer last season was $22 million. Both Boyd and Imanaga became free agents on Thursday.

The most the Cubs have ever given to a pitcher in free agency was Jon Lester's six-year, $155 million deal ahead of the 2015 season. That one panned out pretty well. But since 2016, the Cubs have been stuck in a pretty vicious cycle of low-cost deals to under-the-radar pitchers or failed homegrown projects.

The checkbook has seldom opened for a free-agent pitcher, but for a club as desperate as the Cubs are to revamp their pitching, it may be time to take the risk again.

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