A St. Louis Non-Tender Could Catapult a Player Into Oakland’s Crosshairs as Their Biggest Offseason Target .MH
The A’s could use a veteran lefty in the bullpen headed into 2026
The Athletics are in the market for a second baseman, a third baseman, help in the starting rotation, and perhaps a left-handed relief pitcher if they have time. The St. Louis Cardinals have a slew of targets for the A’s to consider, like Brendan Donovan at second, or Sonny Gray in the rotation on the trade market.
On Friday, the Cardinals decided to non-tender lefty relief pitcher John King, making him a free agent, and he is exactly the type of pitcher the A’s should be going after in the coming days.
King was originally selected by the Texas Rangers in the 10th round of the 2017 MLB Draft, and was traded to the Cardinals at the 2023 Trade Deadline as part of the return for Jordan Montgomery. In his three seasons in St. Louis, he has held a cumulative 3.33 ERA across 127 innings of work, and in two of those three seasons he was exceptional.
The past season was the one in which he didn’t perform up to his own standard. Making 51 appearances, he held a 4.66 ERA (5.00 FIP) across 48 1/3 innings of work and held an astronomical 21.1% home run/fly ball ratio. Part of the problem last year was that his sinker, which he threw 66% of the time to lefties, was in prime home run real estate for left-handed bats.
The other reason that his home run: fly ball rate is so high is that he just doesn’t allow that many fly balls. His 60% ground ball rate ranked in the 98th percentile last season, while the A’s as a team ranked last in ground ball rate at 37.4%. Playing in a more hitter-friendly environment, they could use more balls on the ground as a staff.
In the two seasons prior, King had combined for 97 1/3 innings and a 3.14 ERA (135 ERA+) with a 3.71 FIP. He also has solid control, limiting his walks to 6.3%, which ranked in the 79th percentile last year. He’s not a huge strikeout pitcher, and he doesn’t throw the ball hard, averaging 93 miles per hour on his sinker.
Yet, he misses barrels with the best of ’em, ranking in the 91st percentile in barrel%, and his chase rate was solid last year too, hanging around at 29.9%, which ranked in the 70th percentile.
With the left-handedness and the high ground ball profile, he bears a lot of similarities to T.J. McFarland, who the team re-signed last offseason. The big difference between McFarland this past season and King with the Cardinals is that the 2026 A’s should be a better club than those other two, which would mean fewer bad spots for a lefty specialist to enter the game to eat innings.
The reason the A’s bullpen performed so well down the stretch in 2025, holding the second-best ERA in baseball from August to the end of the season at 2.99, was because manager Mark Kotsay was able to put his guys in a position to succeed, and everyone did their jobs. That meant nobody was having to pick up the slack on a regular basis.
Those are the scenarios that lead to a bloated ERA for a reliever. If the A’s were to sign King, the hope would be to continue to put him in those positions moving forward in order to get the most out of him.
King was projected to earn $2.1 million in his second year of arbitration.
