Orioles’ pursuit to top free agent starter continues as AL East bidding war heats up

Eric Cole

Arizona Diamondbacks v San Diego Padres / Sean M. Haffey/GettyImages

To the surprise of exactly no one, the Baltimore Orioles are heavily connected to the top of the free agent starting pitching market. There is no shortage of arms connected to them, even in the wake of their franchise-altering deal with Pete Alonso. If you were to draw up the ideal plan for the first half of the offseason for the Orioles, this would be pretty close aside from the true pie-in-the-sky options.

Baltimore added a high-leverage reliever in Ryan Helsley, bolstered the offense with Alonso, as well as the Taylor Ward trade, and most (but not all) of the available starters they would want are still ripe for the picking. One of the starters that has been most frequently mentioned along with Baltimore is free agent starter Michael King.

We already knew that the Orioles really like King, as do the Yankees and Red Sox. However, the latest update from MASN's Roch Kubatko suggests that the King bidding is heating up, and while the Orioles are still involved, the Red Sox may have an unfortunate edge.

Orioles Rumors: Baltimore still in the running for Michael King, but the Red Sox may have the edge at the moment

Kubatko is careful to say that one should not count out the Orioles until a deal elsewhere is done. He noted that Baltimore's sales pitch to Alonso was extremely convincing, and if they are similarly motivated and persuasive with King, they still have the resources to get a deal done.

However, King's roots in the New England area present a real obstacle. King is from Rhode Island and went to college at Boston College, and that regional familiarity could hold some weight. This is the Red Sox we are talking about, and they have a better-than-average chance of screwing up negotiations by being needlessly cheap and thinking themselves clever, but Boston might be the team to beat right now.

Thankfully, it doesn't seem like it is King or bust for the Orioles. There are still plenty of really good rotation arms available both in free agency and on the trade market, so they have real options left. However, the arm they may covet the most from a talent and price perspective could be tough to land.

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.