TODAY: The Rockies announced that Marquez has been activated from the IL. Right-hander Angel Chivilli has been optioned to Double-A to make room for Marquez on the active roster.
July 13: The Rockies are set to activate right-hander German Marquez from the 60-day injured list tomorrow, manager Bud Black told reporters (including Mike Fitzpatrick of The Denver Post) last night. Colorado’s 40-man roster currently stands at 39, meaning the club will only need to make a corresponding active roster move to activate Marquez unless they add another player to the 40-man prior to activating him.
Marquez, 29, made it just four starts into the 2023 season before requiring Tommy John surgery in early May of last year. At the time, the former All Star was a pending free agent, but the sides hammered out a two-year, $20MM extension last September that has allowed Marquez to complete his rehab in a familiar organization and re-establish his value ahead of free agency, which now looms after the 2025 season.
For the Rockies, the move allowed them to retain a player who has shown the rare ability to pitch well while calling Coors Field home. From 2018 to 2021, Marquez posted a 4.22 ERA that was 17% better than average by ERA+ and an even stronger 3.70 FIP across 106 starts for the Rockies. That’s the version of Marquez the club surely hopes they’ll be adding back to their rotation tomorrow, although it’s worth noting that the righty’s 2022 season demonstrated some cause for concern as he posted an eye-popping 6.70 ERA in 16 starts at Coors despite an excellent 3.34 ERA in 15 starts on the road.
Marquez is slated to take the ball tomorrow in a start against the Mets in New York, and is expected to throw between 75 and 90 pitches in his return to the mound. The Rockies, with a dismal 33-62 record this season, will not be factoring into the postseason picture in 2024 regardless of how well the right-hander performs in his return to action. With that being said, it’s at least feasible that a strong start from the righty over the next few weeks could impact the club’s thinking ahead of the trade deadline on July 30. If Marquez can return to the club’s rotation looking healthy and effective, it would add a quality starter to a rotation that could make the club more comfortable dealing away pieces from its rotation.
Earlier this summer, the Rockies were reportedly listening on offers for right-hander Cal Quantrill and lefty Austin Gomber while also receiving interest in righty Ryan Feltner. Quantrill has pitched to solid results in his first season with Colorado, posting 4.13 ERA (110 ERA+) in 19 starts despite a lackluster 4.77 FIP thanks in part to a career-best 46.4% groundball rate. Gomber, meanwhile, has posted a 4.61 ERA that’s essentially league average (99 ERA+) after adjusting for park factors. Feltner has been the least impressive of the three in terms of on-field results with a lackluster 5.02 ERA, although more advanced metrics such as SIERA (4.13) and xERA (4.04) look much more favorably upon him thanks to his microscopic 6.5% walk rate and an ability to limit hard contact.
Dealing any of those controllable players would be tough for a rotation that already has the league’s worst ERA, but if Marquez can prove himself capable of returning to the top of the club’s rotation that would go a long way to helping round out a rotation that already parted ways with right-hander Dakota Hudson earlier this month.
“Marquez posted a 4.22 ERA that was 17% better than average by ERA+ and an even stronger 3.70 FIP ”
Yay for citing FIP but why not FIP-. Especially for a Rockies pitcher and especially when you just cited ERA-?
You want people to pay for “expert” analysis, but there’s no evidence that you’re experts.
I could not imagine paying for this site when adblock exists and the headlines contain 80% of the necessary information from the “articles.” I dont know why they’re insistent on making this anything more than what it needs to be. The writers can’t bother to properly proofread half the time!
I did like the guest articles from players like Tim Dillard.
Worse are the articles where they try to be Fangraphs and write long posts about how some player is good/bad but use very basic stats they just found by scrolling a quarter way down his Baseball Reference page.
Exactly! I know how to parse stat sheets too, I have since I was 17 lol. They need to pick a lane. Be a breaking news/rumor site with no fluff, or they need to hire real writers and get some player created content or something more than whatever they’re doing. And the ads/ebegging is really weak.
Why was Chivilli on the roster this whole time if he only appeared in five games?
“Meanwhile” can’t come in the middle of the sentence between commas, since it’s a conjunctive adverb. It has to START the sentence.