Is Michael King going to shift the league again?

[Pauly]

Is a shift happening in baseball? The past few years, many of the most talented pitchers have been pigeon-holed as relivers (come in, throw at 100% max effort for 1-2 innings, wait til the next time). Michael King of the Yankees was certainly one of those guys. But something strange happened. The Yankees lost like 8 SPs and said screw it, lets convert him (back) into a starter (last time he was a full-time starter was 2018). Last night's 7 inning, 13K performance was likely his best performance as a professional.

To a lesser extent, Cole Ragans (who admittedly was a starter for Texas in the minors), was used as a spot reliever until he got traded to KC, who made him a starter, and he has flourished. And obviously lets not forget Spencer Strider last year.

But seeing a long time RP like King do this is a game changer to me.

There are tons of guys out there who were starters for their whole early career, but now find themselves in this strange RP role that was all the rage for the past half decade or so (?). Turning it around to fantasy....early next year, spotting these players, who are likely to convert into starters like this, will win some championships.

[Ken]

You lost me on this one.

Ragans changed his arsenal when he went to the Royals. They changed his slider significantly. The Royals saw something that the Rangers didn't which is more of an indictment on Texas than anything.

And the Strider example doesn't really resonate for me - many pitchers historically have started out in MLB as relievers and switched to starters as their arsenal matured. Basically get your foot in the door in short stints before needing to focus on that 3rd pitch / 3rd time through the order. I don't see Strider any different than the many before him that did the same? Other than he's really freaking good.

When you noted above many of the most "talented" pitchers have been relievers I'm not sure I follow you. It seems like the most talented are still starters. Those that are less talented are finding ways to still be relevant which in many cases is by switching to a RP role where they can pitch differently (fewer pitch types needed, more max effort, etc).

But I'm not following how any of that leads to a conclusion that more talented pitchers are relievers?