Christmas lights are starting to pop up around the neighborhood. It used to bug me more when I would see Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving – just felt wrong and asynchronous – but now I kinda feel like whatever. The whole season seems to fly by so quickly, and if people want to enjoy it for longer, hey, do your thing.
On the one hand, this is a simplistic comparison without context for stuff, age, relativity of change, etc. On the other hand, eep:Michael King’s strikeout rate has decreased each of the last four seasons. Here are the only other pitchers to do so, as well as their 2026 ERA (min. 50 IP) * Zac Gallen (6.07) * Seth Lugo (5.17) * Taylor Rogers (4.33) * Aaron Civale (4.20) A warning sign for his free agency?
— Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB) November 6, 2026 If I had to try to talk around that, I’d note that Rogers and Lugo were 35/36, and you tend to expect that kind of decline in results at some point. I’d say that Civale’s decline as a starting pitcher had been evident for years, and his relative success this past season obviously came when he was a reliever with the Cubs (indeed, his strikeout rate popped BOTH years he was a reliever with the Cubs). And then with Gallen, the big difference here is that his strikeout rate was in a modest decline before falling off a CLIFF in 2025, ahead of free agency. Hence his prove-it deal (which did not prove much except that the decline was real). So anyway, that is to say, even stripping away any Michael King-specific context, I don’t know that I’d be TOO worried about that list. As for the King-specific context, though, maybe we don’t say enough that he went from a 27.7% strikeout rate in 2024, his first year as a converted starter, to 24.4% in 2025, to just 21.0% this year. By FIP-, he actually rated out as slightly below average the past two years. Maybe thoughts that he’ll definitely get $100M+ are overstated? The points here from Sahadev Sharma seem pretty salient for this discussion:A pitching revolution is brewing on the North Side… ? @sahadevsharma sees Colin Rea’s exit as “a little bit of a sign” of Chicago’s evolving pitching philosophy. t.co/XuiwTbDSYk
— North Side Territory (@NSideTerritory) November 4, 2026 His thinking on starting pitchers is that the Cubs are going to be looking for pretty much only two primary things: high strikeout rates or VERY high groundball rates. King’s strikeout rate this past year was behind 59 other starting pitchers who reached 120 innings. His groundball rate was good, but not elite (behind 25 other starting pitchers who reached 120 innings). We all know how dominant he looked in the postseason, and maybe there’s some projection available based on certain things the Cubs see that they could do. But if you were judging based solely on strikeouts and groundball rate, King is not a guy you’d expect to be giving a huge deal. As far as possible returning Cubs pitchers, Kevin Gausman and Shota Imanaga are the ones with strong strikeout rates, Clay Holmes and David Peterson are the ones with strong groundball rates, and Matthew Boyd (who wasn’t ever really a big groundball guy) fell way off in his strikeout rate. While we’re on that list up there and talking about returning Cubs pitchers: consider me still very down for the Cubs to bring Aaron Civale back *if* he’s ready to fully convert to relief at this point in his career. It’s quite obvious he can be a good one in middle relief, though he does need to show that he could also do shorter-burst, shorter-rest work, if necessary. Something something trade for Jacob deGrom something something:The Rangers are reportedly looking for trade partners for Corey Seager, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi this offseason. Harold Reynolds and Lauren Shehadi react on #MLBNHotStove. t.co/bCxIGzQo3y
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) November 5, 2026 deGrom’s strikeout rate was over 30% this past season, 7th best among qualified starters. Just sayin’. Top Japanese pitching prospect Shoki Oda, who may skip playing in the NPB entirely, is meeting with teams ahead of possibly signing in the next IFA class:Yokohama HS RHP Shoki Oda has met with the Rangers, Phillies, and Mets so far, with about 8-9 more teams, including the Dodgers and Yankees, expected to follow in the coming weeks. The 18 y/o can also join the Yomiuri Giants or attend an NCAA school. t.co/L4VLHN9izu
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) November 5, 2026 I doubt any of the involved teams has enough left in their bonus pool to sign him in the current period (ends December 15), so we’d be looking instead at a deal around January 15 when that new period opens. No word yet that the Cubs are among the teams that’ve spoken with him, but if he’s meeting with almost half the league as reported, then I don’t see how it’s even possible the Cubs wouldn’t be involved. They do like to keep these things extraordinarily quiet if at all possible. Knowing what we know of the evidence thus far – which is not everything, innocent until proven guilty, deserve day in court, etc., etc. – I actually find this to be perhaps the most clever strategy Emanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz’s legal teams could employ:Milwaukee Brewers catcher Bo Naylor is scheduled to testify today in USA vs. Clase/Ortiz. He’s a defense witness, testifying out of order. Clase/Ortiz argued on the first day that their pitches were part of legitimate game strategy.
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) November 5, 2026 In other words, even if the extremely wild pitches did happen to correspond with bets, they couldn’t be part of a fraudulent scheme to rig bets, because they were designed as part of a plan to win that at bat/inning, so to speak. And BECAUSE they were designed as part of a plan to win that at bat/inning, clearly they couldn’t have been about intentionally rigging bets. The intent was to win the game. Obviously it’s a stretch, but, like I said, I’m not sure there’s a better argument to make, given the (reportedly extremely strong) evidence. I respect the legal creativity. Baseball is so ahead of the curve by simply allowing fans to keep its balls. Avoids controversies like this:“What the f*ck are you doing?” Fan gets ejected for passing the ball at the referee t.co/ATh5iq1vCf
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) November 5, 2026 I kid, but it’s a fun bit of history to note that allowing fans to keep foul balls and homers from MLB games *was* actually an affirmative decision that was made by Cubs owner Charles Weeghman in 1916, the first year the team was at Wrigley Field. Other teams copied the Cubs from there. MORE CUBS FROM BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN NewsletterHence then, the article about targeting strikeouts and groundballs king concerns civale oda and other cubs bullets was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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