Blockbuster trade wasn't going to ruin King's wedding plans

PEORIA, Ariz. -- By Dec. 6, Michael King and his fiancée, Sheila, had already finished most of their wedding planning. With 10 days to go, they scheduled a date night in midtown Manhattan, a quiet evening together ahead of the impending wedding-week chaos.

They bought tickets to see the Rockettes. They made reservations for dinner at Oceans. That afternoon, King’s phone started buzzing. Incessantly.

The chaos had arrived early.

The rumor was out there, with plenty of substance: King, following his breakout season with the Yankees, would be dealt to the Padres as one of the headliners in a five-player package for Juan Soto. Sometime in the early afternoon, King’s agent called.

“My agent was like, ‘You’re going to the freaking Rockettes?’” King laughed. “‘You know, this [trade] could happen while you’re at the Rockettes.’”

Fine by King. He and Sheila went to the Rockettes (though King said he spent the entire performance with his phone out, on his knee). They went to dinner, too (where King admits his phone was also probably a bit too present).

It was only after they’d gotten home that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman’s name popped up on his screen.

“That Wednesday night,” King said, “neither of us really slept.”

There was too much to do. A wedding in 10 days -- followed by a move across the country for two life-long northeasterners, King from Rhode Island and Sheila New Jersey.

The timing wasn’t ideal. But the trade wasn’t wholly unexpected.

King had spent November working out at Yankee Stadium. Most days, when he left, he’d check into the front office with a joking request: “Don’t trade me.”

For the early part of the offseason, that’s all it was: a joke. But a night before the deal, it started to feel real. It was then that Sheila broached the question, asking point blank: “Do you think you’ll actually get traded.”

King’s wheels started spinning. He’d been told repeatedly that the Yankees valued him highly and didn’t want to trade him. So for most of the offseason, he assumed he wouldn’t be dealt. Then again, he hadn’t sat down and thought about the question.

King is an astute observer. He heard the chatter surrounding Soto, and he realized Soto would be a perfect fit in New York. He’d also just posted a 2.75 ERA while thriving down the stretch after transitioning to the rotation.

The Padres needed starting pitching, and he’d heard they were interested.

“If I’m putting myself in the GM’s shoes, there’s almost more pressure to make the trade and send whoever they want,” King said. “Because you need Soto. So I came back to my wife, and I was like, ‘I could definitely see it -- even if the Yankees really like me and [don’t] want to trade me.’ It’s freaking Juan Soto.”

At the very least, Michael and Sheila weren’t completely blindsided when it became a reality the following day. Still, they had to figure out the logistics of an Arizona Spring Training. They needed to figure out housing in San Diego. And, oh yeah, they had to get married.

King set an arbitrary deadline for non-wedding-related tasks. They would spend the next two days dealing with the ripple effects of the blockbuster trade. Then, it was time to shift focus.

“By Friday, I was like: It’s the week of our wedding,” King said. “We’re not thinking about anything else. We’re going to prepare for our wedding and have an absolute blast at the wedding, and it’ll be like our little New York sendoff.”

To some extent, King broke his own rule. During wedding week, he carved out time to speak extensively with Padres manager Mike Shildt, pitching coach Ruben Niebla and veteran right-hander Joe Musgrove via phone.

In January, the Kings would attend another wedding -- in San Diego, conveniently enough. He stuck around and attended the team’s pitchers camp there, too. By the time he arrived at Spring Training, King said he felt like a Padre, thanks largely to those conversations during wedding week.

“I then started feeling like I was part of the team,” King said. “Instead of just the random kid that just got traded. It was a much more comforting feeling, and we were able to just focus on the wedding.”

Ten days after the deal was finalized -- having already processed the trade and their pending cross-country move -- Sheila and Michael were married at the Pierre Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

“It was like our going away party,” King said. “And we had a freaking blast.”