Chuck King pitches for the Phillies in a Grapefruit League game against the Detroit Tigers on March 16, 2026.(Credit: Maria SanFilippo)
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Chuck King was burned out from playing baseball.
He had decided five years of pitching at Texas Christian University was enough. The grind of the sport was taking it's toll. He no longer loved the game that was his passion growing up.
It was time to do something else. After all, this was why he went to college -- to get an education, a degree, and pursue a career in something other than baseball -- where even if he was in the top two percent of the world at his job, it wouldn't be good enough.
So, the Texas native took that degree in urban wildlife biology and tried to carve a path for his career.
During the pandemic, he took up birdwatching. It was a way to relax his mind, but it was also a part of an idea he had.
"My goal was to integrate urban wildlife biology and work with a city to figure out how animals are adapting to an urban setting," King said. "How can we mesh the two so that animals and people can live together?"
It was certainly a unique idea. Quite the cerebral one, actually, as King thought it could expand further to plant life and other flora and fauna.
But he couldn't just walk into City Hall and make it happen. He needed to get his foot in the door somewhere first.
So, he applied to jobs -- 70 of them, in fact -- and never got a call back.
And while the radio silence in the field was frustrating, it was also illuminating. That's when he realized that there was another road he could go down, but it would mean going back to the thing that wore him down mentally and emotionally while at TCU.
But at least this time it wouldn't be about actually playing the game of baseball, but rather studying the science of it.
Always curious, and with an analytical mind, King decided to try his hand at performance analytics and sports science. He interned in the sports science department at TCU for a brief time to bolster his resume. He then started applying for jobs again.
This time, two companies responded - the Texas Rangers and the San Diego Padres.
He took the gig in San Diego.
For the better part of two years, he was learning while on the job. He got to understand that there is so much more to the science of the sport than meets the eye. That the sport is just at the tip of the iceberg with figuring out how to blend science with the institutional knowledge that comes from playing or coaching the sport for many years.
"It kind of gave me an opportunity to learn about where the game was heading," King said. "In college, we didn't necessarily leverage the Trackman and all this new information and data ... so I was pitching blind."
The more he gleaned from the data, the more he started to understand the correlation between it and performance and all of the sudden, an old, inner flame that had been doused for three years, was once again lit.
While based with the Lake Elsinore Storm, a Single-A affiliate of the Padres, King would start throwing again on his own time, self-instructing along the way, He'd teach himself new mechanics and new techniques - and wondering again if that childhood dream could be restored.
Then something happened that was a defining moment in getting him back on the mound in a serious way.
His ballpark blew up.
"We had a gas line that was being serviced and it exploded and almost lifted the entire building off the ground," King said. "We cancelled games for the weekend, but we showed up on Sunday for a workout to prepare to travel on Monday for a game on Tuesday. I thought it was a laid back kind of deal (because of the stadium's condition) so I'm gonna go up there (on the mound) and just see what comes out."
The first three fastballs went 96-96-96.
"I was like, 'whatever I'm doing is working,'" said King, who sat between 92 and 93 mph while with the Horned Frogs.
And with that, he thought he had to try, one more time, to chase his childhood dream.
King left the Padres and went to Scottsdale, Arizona where he began training at the pitching factory Driveline, where they gave him even more tools to put in his toolbox.
Finally, in January, 2024, he participated in Driveline's Pro Day, where he would throw for Major League scouts. He hit 97 with his fastball.
Soon thereafter, he signed with the Phillies, allowing the dream to sustain a little while longer.
Originally thought to be a reliever, the Phillies stretched him out in 2025 to be a starter.
Pitching predominantly at High-A Jersey Shore in 2024, King had a 3.92 ERA across 41 1/3 innings with a 1.258 WHIP and 45 strikeouts.
Last year, he pitched exclusively for Double-A Reading as a starter and took a big jump in innings, throwing 123 1/3 in 25 appearances, 23 starts. He finished with a 4.38 ERA.
Now 28, King is trying to thread the needle to prove he's a late bloomer. Prior to Monday he had shown the Phillies some positive signs. He had thrown five scoreless innings in three games allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine.
Chuck King DEALT in his first Spring Training inning of the year 🍿#Phillies pic.twitter.com/bLcdMBmPo4
It was enough for them to give him a start against a nearly-full Major League lineup for the Detroit Tigers on Monday.
It didn't go well.
The Tigers ambushed King. He was lifted from the game in the first inning after facing eight batters. He got two outs but the other six scored. He gave up a home run to Tigers uber-prospect, Delco native, and Monsignor Bonner-Archbishop Predergast grad Kevin McGonigle that went 437 feet. A second rocket, earlier in the inning, from Spencer Torkelson bounced just before the wall and ended up being a ground rule double.
As happens in Spring Training, pitchers can go back into a game after being removed as teams manage pitch counts - especially in a given inning.
So, in the bottom of the second, out to the mound King strode again, and again he was met unkindly by Torkelson. This time the ball went 424 feet for a homer.
In the third, King seemed rattled and walked the bases loaded before having them cleared on a double by Jahmai Jones.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson showed him some mercy at that point, lifting him from the game.
His final line was pretty ugly:
1 2/3 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 10ER, 4BB, 1K, 2HR
King hung around the dugout for a few innings to talk to Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham and assistant pitching coach Mark Lowy.
"The biggest learning point has been talking with Cotham -- that dude has blown my mind on like seven different occasions," King said. "The conversation I had with him [Monday] is just as important as the conversation I had with him when I threw three good innings last week. Today it was like, 'Hey, dude, sometimes baseball gets you and I don't have to tell you the reason why you're out and the way it went today. But I don't need you to change anything. I need you to continue doubling down on what we've talked about and continue to make progression in that area."
Cotham told him to make bullpen sessions more game-like. And talked about understanding his own thought processes a little more.
"The separator is, how do you respond to stuff when it goes bad," King said. "A lot of it is mental. I could choose to hang my head after I got 10 hung on me, but I learned something from it and that's the goal of this entire thing."
Who knows what King's path is from here.
Thomson said King has to add a pitch to become more effective, but that it's hard not to root for him, since he is so committed to this second chance at chasing his dream and because he's, well, quirky?
"He's been pitching very well - and we saw that four days ago when he threw three great innings," Thomson said. "[Monday] was a little bit different. He's got to get ahead in the count because he's got good stuff. His split is good, the cutters, the fastball plays, but we have to add another pitch.
"But, yeah, he's... he's... how do I say it...?"
Unique? Fascinating?
"He's a little bit different, but in a good way," Thomson added.
King knows his path to the majors is a longshot. He knows that this reclamation might not go much further than it has. And he's made peace with that.
He said it's always good to have a Plan B if things don't work out, and that at this point, as much as he loves urban wildlife, he feels the future of his career will remain in baseball in some capacity, even if it's not actually pitching from a mound, although there is no inkling of concession from him yet. He still feels like there is a path for him as a pitche, even if it's narrow, windy, full of pitfalls and he's traversing it while wearing a blindfold.
But that doesn't mean he'll forget who he is or where he came from when it comes to birds and other urban wildlife.
"I use an app called iNaturalist," he said, comfortably sharing about his enchanting hobby. "So, what it does is you take a picture and it geo tags the location of that picture and it's like citizen science. So, anytime I see something cool or interesting, I take a picture of it and put it in the database and it's a fun way to keep sharp with that kind of stuff."
It's his way of staying authentic and true to himself. If you spend even 20 minutes with Charles Fuggitt King, you'd understand that's exactly who he is.
Oh, and that's not a type-o. That's his middle name. It comes down from his great uncle who was a World War I pilot.
Tomorrow’s Starting Pitcher for the Phillies:
Chuck Fuggitt King pic.twitter.com/WsBRkVoKtk
It's pronounced Few-get, by the way, even if it looks like something else.
"I've gotten every pronunciation you can imagine," King said.
It's just another great story for him to tell you. After all, he's got plenty of captivating ones to share. And he's happy to do just that, even immediately after giving up 10 runs in less than two innings.
Like Thomson said, "He's got nothing to lose."
No, he doesn't.
