Diamondbacks Acquire Jason Marquis

The Diamondbacks added an innings eater for the stretch drive today, acquiring righty Jason Marquis from the Nationals for shortstop prospect Zach Walters, the teams announced. Marquis returns to the NL West, where he won 15 games in '09 for the Rockies.

Marquis, 32, has a 3.95 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 0.6 HR/9, and 54.0% groundball rate in 120 2/3 innings this year.  Our projected Elias rankings have him well short of Type B status.  Aside from last year, the veteran righty is known for taking the ball every fifth day, and he'll slot in nicely at the back end of Arizona's rotation. The D'Backs take on all of the $2.47MM remaining on Marquis' contract.

The Diamondbacks selected Walters in the ninth round of last year's draft.  The 21-year-old has a .302/.377/.485 line with 42 extra base hits in 412 plate appearances at Class A South Bend this season.  He has mostly played short, but has also appeared in ten-plus games at second and third.

Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi broke the story and Jim Bowden added detail. Ben Nicholson-Smith contributed to this post.  Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.