Florida baseball ace Aidan King was named the 2026 SEC Pitcher of the Year, the league announced Monday afternoon.
King is the fourth player in Florida program history to earn SEC Pitcher of the Year honors since the award was established in 2003 and the first since Brady Singer won it in 2018. Florida’s four honorees are tied with LSU for the most in the conference. King also becomes just the fifth underclassman to win the award and the first to do so at Florida.
Off the back of a historic freshman campaign, King dominated once again in his sophomore season, posting an 8-2 record, 2.50 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. The latter ranked sixth nationally and first in the SEC. The right-handed pitcher was among the best in the country at limiting free passes, walking just 16 batters across 79.1 innings pitched.
King allowed just 6.58 hits and 1.82 walks per nine innings while posting a 5.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio, all of which ranked among the nation’s top 40. In SEC play, King led all conference starters with a 0.89 WHIP, held opposing hitters to a .184 batting average, and went 6-1 across 10 starts.
The Jacksonville, Florida native began the season as Florida’s Saturday starter before moving to Friday nights as the coaching staff sought more length in Game 1. Across 14 starts, King logged nine outings of at least six innings and four of seven-plus innings, all of which came during his final seven starts. A true workhorse, King failed to complete five innings just three times all season — and only once in SEC play. His 6.2 frames per SEC start trailed only Alabama’s Tyler Fay.
From April 3 through May 1, King delivered the most dominant five-week stretch by an SEC pitcher — and maybe by any pitcher in the country. Facing Ole Miss, Georgia, Auburn, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma, King went 4-0 with five straight quality starts and a 1.51 ERA across 35.2 innings, averaging 7.1 innings per outing.
As a result, King earned National Pitcher of the Month.
Across his last 19 starts dating back to the 2025 season, King is 12-3 with a 1.91 ERA and a 112-to-26 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 118 innings.
King and the Gators are set to travel to the 2026 SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Alabama. Receiving a bye into the second round, Florida will face the winner of No. 12 seed Vanderbilt vs. No. 13 seed Kentucky on Wednesday, May 20.