Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

German Marquez

Rockies Notes: Front Office, Marquez, Halvorsen

By | at

The Rockies are concluding one of the worst seasons in MLB history. They’ll come up just shy of 120 losses and are the only team since 1900 to be outscored by more than 400 runs. It led the historically loyal organization to fire manager Bud Black after a 7-33 start to the season. They’ve gone 36-84 under interim skipper Warren Schaeffer.

Walker Monfort, son of Rox’s owner Dick Monfort, was promoted to executive vice president in June. The team announced at the time that chief operating officer Greg Feasel would step aside at the end of the season. The team did not make any in-season changes to the baseball operations staff, yet that could happen in the next few weeks.

Buster Olney and Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported on Thursday that the Rox are “likely” to make changes to the front office. That may extend to the top of baseball operations. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post wrote a couple weeks back that “it appears likely that (GM Bill Schmidt) will be fired or reassigned” at season’s end.

Schmidt has led baseball operations on a full-time basis since the 2021-22 offseason. He inherited a below-average roster from previous GM Jeff Bridich, but the results have gotten progressively worse. They lost 94 games during his first season and have lost 100+ games in each of the past three years — the first such seasons in franchise history.

No team has a worse record than Colorado’s 231-415 mark over the last four years. Schmidt had been in the organization for more than two decades before ascending to the GM role. He has been in the charge of the team’s amateur drafts since 2000. The Rox had brief runs of success during that time — highlighted by the National League pennant in 2007 — but only have five postseason appearances in a franchise history that dates back to 1993.

Whether they make a change atop baseball operations or not, the Rockies will need to decide whether to stick with Schaeffer as their permanent manager. They’re also likely to see the departure of one of their longest-tenured players. Germán Márquez made what’ll probably be his final start as a Rockie this evening. The impending free agent gave up six runs over 4 1/3 innings and took the loss. He finishes the season with a grisly 6.70 earned run average over 26 starts.

Márquez had much better seasons earlier in his career. He had a pair of sub-4.00 ERA seasons at Coors Field in 2018 and ’20 while securing an All-Star nod in 2021. Márquez has spent nine-plus seasons in Denver but is unlikely to return in free agency. Saunders wrote this evening that Colorado doesn’t intend to re-sign him.

The righty reflected on the run after making his final home start last weekend (link via Thomas Harding of MLB.com). “It was very, very emotional. It may have been the last game that I throw as a Rockie at Coors Field. I don’t know,” he acknowledged. “I was thinking about that the whole game. This is my home. I’ve been here for my whole career. I feel happy. I feel free here. But it’s baseball, and I need to see what’s going to happen.”

Márquez might well have been traded at this summer’s deadline had he not been placed on the injured list with biceps tendinitis in late July. The Rockies were more willing sellers than they’d been in previous seasons. They traded Ryan McMahon, Jake Bird and Tyler Kinley while at least hearing teams out on controllable relievers Seth Halvorsen and Victor Vodnik. They ended up holding both late-game arms.

Vodnik finished the season as the closer. Halvorsen went down immediately after the deadline with a mild flexor strain. That ended his season, but the fireballing righty has progressed to throwing off a mound as he prepares for the offseason (via the MLB.com injury tracker). He’s an unlikely offseason trade candidate coming off a season-ending elbow injury when he’s still under club control for five seasons. If he’s healthy, he’d have a good chance at beginning next year as the closer.

Rockies Move Antonio Senzatela To Bullpen

By | at

The Rockies are moving righty Antonio Senzatela to the bullpen, general manager Bill Schmidt tells reporters (including Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post). Colorado will activate Germán Márquez from the 15-day injured list to start Friday against the Cubs. To make room, Senzatela loses his rotation spot for the final month of a dismal season.

Senzatela has taken the ball 24 times. He has averaged fewer than five innings per start and been tattooed for a 7.15 earned run average. Senzatela has completed six innings just three times and has only two quality starts. His ERA is nearly a full run higher than Jack Kochanowicz’s 6.19 mark (entering play tonight), the second worst for a pitcher with 100+ innings. His 11.3% strikeout rate is also worst among that group of 106 hurlers. Senzatela hasn’t pitched well at any point of games, but he’s been particularly poor out of the gate. His first inning ERA is a staggering 11.51, with opponents hitting .443 against him.

Schmidt was blunt in his summary of Senzatela’s season. “The bottom line is that he was not helping the club. He was hurting the club, especially early in the game,” the GM said. “Same thing with (Austin Gomber). They were putting the team in a hole early, and they were putting our young relievers in a hole, too.”

Colorado released Gomber last week. The southpaw was an impending free agent whom the Rox weren’t going to re-sign coming off a 7.49 ERA showing. Releasing Senzatela would’ve required eating a lot of dead money. He’s signed for another season at $12MM. There’s also a $14MM club option (no buyout) for 2027 that stands virtually no chance of being picked up. Colorado could consider pulling the plug over the offseason but evidently want to first see if he can find some success in relief. Pitching coach Darryl Scott tells Saunders that the Rox aren’t ruling out the possibility of Senzatela returning to the rotation to begin the ’26 season.

Márquez returns after a month-long absence due to biceps tendinitis. He’ll hopefully take five turns through the rotation to close the year. Márquez is an impending free agent who’ll be a rebound target for other clubs this offseason. He has struggled to a 5.67 ERA across 20 starts but has a 95 MPH fastball and still misses bats with his knuckle-curve.

Colorado called up McCade Brown to replace Gomber. He’s their third rookie in the rotation, joining Chase Dollander and Tanner Gordon. Márquez and Kyle Freeland round out the group. None of Colorado’s starters have had sustained success this year. Gordon projects as a depth arm, while Brown might end up in relief. There’s little reason for the Rox to continue trotting Senzatela out as a starter at the expense of reps for their younger arms, though.

Rockies Place Germán Márquez On Injured List

By | at

July 23: The Rockies announced Wednesday that they have indeed placed Márquez on the 15-day injured list due to right biceps tendinitis. The move is retroactive to July 21 but will still keep him on the injured list beyond the July 31 trade deadline. Injured players can still be traded, but the IL placement obviously impacts his value and reduces the chance of a deal coming together.

July 22: Per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, the MRI showed biceps inflammation but no structural damage. Thomas Harding of MLB.com says that Tanner Gordon is with the club and will likely start tomorrow, with Márquez likely bound for the IL.

July 21: Germán Márquez went for an MRI on his shoulder this afternoon, relays Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. The Rockies have not placed the veteran right-hander on the injured list to this point. They’re currently calling the issue shoulder inflammation but are awaiting more specifics from the imaging.

Márquez only managed three innings in yesterday’s start against the Twins. He told reporters (including MLB.com’s Thomas Harding) that the issue stems from his final start before the All-Star Break. He’d pitched well in that appearance — six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts in Cincinnati — but apparently worked through some discomfort. He’d hoped that the issue would resolve itself with over a week of rest because of the break. That didn’t happen, and Márquez acknowledged yesterday that he and the training staff are considering skipping his next start.

It’s an inopportune time for an injury. Márquez is an impending free agent. He’s very likely to be traded if he’s healthy. A pitcher with a 5.67 earned run average across 20 starts seemingly wouldn’t be of much interest to contenders. Márquez has an even worse road ERA (5.95) than he does at Coors Field (5.31).

Still, some teams could view him as a change-of-scenery candidate in a market that’ll be starved for starting pitching. Márquez was an above-average starter before he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s averaging north of 95 MPH on his fastball and getting whiffs on his mid-80s knuckle-curve. Márquez also seemed to be rounding into form over the past six weeks.

The 30-year-old posted a 2.97 ERA over six starts in June (though he gave up six unearned runs on June 18). Márquez was bombed by the White Sox in his first appearance of July before turning in arguably his best start of the year during the aforementioned appearance against the Reds. Sunday’s start was terrible — three runs in as many innings with four hits and walks apiece — but it’s easy to forgive that based on the injury. While he wouldn’t be anyone’s top target, teams seeking a back-end starter could view him as more of an intriguing upside play than the likes of Andrew Heaney, Aaron Civale or Erick Fedde.

If Márquez requires an injured list stint, he’ll be out beyond next Thursday’s trade deadline. Even if he simply skips one turn through the rotation, he wouldn’t be lined up to pitch again by July 31. They could push him back a few days while running him out on July 29 or 30 against the Guardians in an attempt to showcase his health, but that’s dependent on the imaging results. Márquez is playing on a $10MM salary and would receive a $1MM assignment bonus if he’s traded. He’d also unlock $2MM in bonuses at each of 140, 150 and 160 innings pitched, but those are lofty targets considering he’s currently at 98 1/3 frames and now facing an injury.

Latest On Rockies’ Expected Deadline Approach

By | at

The Rockies dropped to 21-71 with today’s loss in Boston, putting them on a 37-win pace for the season. That’d have them four wins shy of last year’s White Sox, the worst team in modern history. The Rockies are obviously going to be deadline sellers, but the extent of that sale is complicated by the organization’s track record of holding onto players that any other team would have traded.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the Rox intend to be more willing to listen on veteran players than they have been at prior deadlines. He suggests they’ll seriously entertain interest in the likes of third baseman Ryan McMahon, reliever Jake Bird, and starter Germán Márquez. That broadly aligns with a report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post last week. Heyman reported that the Rockies are open to offers on McMahon, specifically, after they pulled him off the trade market early in 2024.

However, that increased willingness to deal veterans doesn’t mean the Rockies are completely open for business. Rosenthal writes that the team remains unlikely to trade young players whom they view as core pieces. He lists shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, center fielder Brenton Doyle, and rookie righty Chase Dollander in that group. Rosenthal more surprisingly adds relievers Seth Halvorsen and Zach Agnos, plus starter Ryan Feltner, as players who may fall in the latter category.

McMahon, Márquez and Bird are Colorado’s three most obvious trade chips. They all featured prominently on MLBTR’s initial list of the top 40 trade candidates last week. McMahon is a plus defensive third baseman with power and strikeout concerns. He had an abysmal April, raked in May, and has cooled back off since the beginning of June. He’s hitting just .210/.310/.373 on the season and has been a well below-average hitter (.207/.305/.350) over the past calendar year.

There’ll nevertheless be interest in McMahon, particularly given the scarcity of infield talent that may be available. The Yankees need to acquire a third baseman and have reportedly already checked in. The Cubs and Tigers are speculative possibilities. McMahon is playing on a $12MM salary in his age-30 season and will make $16MM annually between 2026-27.

Márquez is an impending free agent who is making $10MM. He was an above-average starter earlier in his career but hasn’t been as sharp since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s sitting on a 5.84 ERA with a subpar 15.3% strikeout rate over 18 starts. The 30-year-old righty is coming off his best month of the season, though, working to a 2.97 mark while striking out 21% of opponents in June. His fastball still sits around 95 MPH, so teams could view him as an upside play outside of Coors Field. He’s unlikely to be a qualifying offer candidate, so there’s little reason not to trade him.

Bird, 29, had quietly been one of the league’s best relievers until he was blown up by the Red Sox on Tuesday. That outing jumped his season ERA by nearly a full run, up from 2.79 to 3.70. Bird has fanned more than 27% of opposing hitters and has generally done well to keep runs off the board. He looked to be a fairly nondescript middle reliever entering the season. He’s under club control for three seasons beyond this one, but this is a breakout year for a reliever approaching his 30th birthday. The Rockies would be wise to cash him in this summer while his trade value is at its peak.

The Rockies have a few other veteran players, though they’d have little to no trade value. They’ll presumably hope to find a lottery ticket prospect for the likes of Thairo Estrada, Austin Gomber and Tyler Kinley. It’s not surprising they’re reluctant to move Tovar or Doyle, both of whom are struggling through down years but looked like potential cornerstones a season ago. Dollander has been hit hard in his debut campaign and was recently optioned back to Triple-A, but he’s a recent top 10 pick and the organization’s best hope of developing a front-line starter.

Feltner is a back-of-the-rotation starter who has missed most of this season rehabbing a back issue. He just returned from the injured list last week and has been limited to six starts. The Rox could get a notable return for Halvorsen, a fireballer who has gotten a look in the ninth inning. He’s only 25 and controllable for five more seasons. A team in Colorado’s position should arguably be willing to trade any reliever, but there’s more of a case for holding Haloversen than there would be with Bird. It’s tougher to see the logic in including Agnos as a potential building block. He’s a rookie reliever with a 5.19 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his first 26 career innings. Agnos, a former 10th-round pick, has good but not elite velocity and has never been a highly-regarded prospect despite excellent minor league numbers.

Rockies Notes: Marquez, Relief Pitching, Condon

By | at

Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt spoke with reporters (including the Denver Post’s Kyle Newman and Just Baseball Media’s Patrick Lyons) at the “Rockies Fest” fan event this weekend, addressing such topics as the health of several notable Colorado players.  German Marquez was one of those players, as Schmidt said the right-hander is recovered from the stress reaction in his right elbow that prematurely ended Marquez’s 2024 season.

Injuries have limited Marquez to five starts and just 24 innings for the Rox over the last two seasons.  The bulk of that injury layoff came in the form of Tommy John rehab, after Marquez underwent the procedure in May 2023.  He made it back to the big leagues by July of last season, but Marquez’s return lasted just a single game, and four innings in Colorado’s 8-5 win over the Mets on July 14.  Elbow inflammation soon sent Marquez to the 15-day IL after that one outing, and the stress reaction was discovered shortly thereafter.

Marquez has spent all nine of his Major League seasons with the Rockies, posting a 4.40 ERA over 996 innings from 2016-22.  The Rockies acknowledged Marquez’s durability and success at handling Coors Field with a five-year, $43MM contract extension in April 2019, with a $16MM club option for the 2024 campaign.  The option never ended up coming into play, as Marquez inked a new two-year, $20MM deal with Colorado in September 2023 that covered the 2024-25 seasons, and gave both sides a little more flexibility as Marquez recovered from his TJ surgery.

With the first season of that deal unfortunately going down as a wash, Marquez now faces extra pressure as an impending free agent.  Marquez’s first priority is just getting healthy and getting back onto a mound, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Rockies make a move to lock him up on another extension if he pitches well in the early part of the season.  Despite his lengthy track record in the majors, Marquez doesn’t turn 30 years old until next month.

Any kind of rotation stability is sorely needed in Denver, both due to the infamous thin-air conditions and because of how hard the Rox have been hit by pitching injuries over the last few years.  Marquez is penciled into a rotation that also includes Austin Gomber, Ryan Feltner, Kyle Freeland, and Antonio Senzatela (who also missed most of 2023-24 due to Tommy John rehab).  Between this group and some Triple-A arms nearing their big league debuts, Schmidt is hopeful the Rockies have amassed enough depth to withstand any further injuries or any struggles from the regular starters.

Some more pitching could be on the way in the form of relievers, as Schmidt indicated that the Rockies could yet add to their bullpen before Spring Training.  Diego Castillo, Jimmy Herget, Tommy Doyle, and Jake Woodford are among the pitchers with MLB experience who have been brought into the organization on minor league deals or waiver claims, and it remains to be seen if the Rockies’ pitching explorations will lead to any guaranteed contracts for bullpen help.

Infielders Thairo Estrada and Kyle Farmer are the only players the Rox have signed to guaranteed deals, both brought into the fold on one-year contracts.  It isn’t necessarily surprising that a team coming off 204 losses in the last two seasons isn’t aggressively spending, but the Rockies are continuing their unusual path of not entirely rebuilding, but also clearly focusing on younger talent.

Charlie Condon is one of those key building blocks for the future, and Schmidt said the team hadn’t yet decided where Charlie Condon will play in the minor leagues next season.  The third overall pick of the 2024 draft began his pro career in inauspicious fashion by hitting only .180/.248/.270 over 109 plate appearances for high-A Spokane, but Schmidt said Condon was trying to play through a bruised thumb that “he kind of didn’t tell us” about.

This injury could well explain those struggles, even though it isn’t unusual for even star prospects to face some growing pains in their first taste of professional baseball.  Condon was also moving right into his pro career on the heels of 60 games with Georgia during the 2024 NCAA season, with Condon crushing college pitching to the tune of a .433/.556/1.009 slash line and 37 homers over 304 PA.  In recently-released top-100 lists, MLB Pipeline rated Condon as the 29th-best prospect in the sport, and Baseball America ranked him 42nd.

Rockies Select Luis Peralta

By | at

The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Luis Peralta. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Tanner Gordon to Triple-A Albuquerque and transferred righty Germán Márquez to the 60-day injured list.

Peralta, 23, was just acquired from the Pirates last month in the Jalen Beeks trade. The younger brother of Brewers ace Freddy Peralta, Luis signed with the Pirates out of the Dominican Republic in 2017. He came up as a starter but has been moved into a relief role this year, with some encouraging results.

He has pitched at High-A, Double-A and Triple-A this year between his two organizations. Between all those different stops, he has logged 47 2/3 innings while only allowing five earned runs for a tiny ERA of 0.94. His 11.2% walk rate in that time is a bit high but he’s worked around that by striking out 40.1% of batters that have stepped to the plate.

He was going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter and was likely going to get a roster spot in a few months’ time anyway, so the Rockies are jumping the gun and adding him now, which will allow them to get a look at him against major league hitters for a few weeks.

Gordon had been working out of the club’s rotation, so they will now have a hole there behind Cal Quantrill, Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Bradley Blalock. Right-hander Ryan Feltner landed on the 15-day IL on August 8 due to a right shoulder strain but could perhaps be coming back. Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball relayed on X last week that Feltner’s MRI came back clean and he could be back after something close to a minimal stint. He made a rehab appearance for Triple-A Albuquerque on Wednesday.

As for Marquez, it was reported a couple of weeks ago that he won’t be coming back this year due to some elbow inflammation, so this transfer to the 60-day IL was an inevitable formality. He’ll be on the 60-day IL for the rest of the year but will need to be reinstated in the days following the World Series, as the IL goes away until Spring Training.

Germán Márquez Won’t Return In 2024

By | at

Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez landed on the 15-day injured list last month due to elbow inflammation. Manager Bud Black tells Manny Randhawa of MLB.com that Márquez won’t be able to make it back to the mound this year. As Randhawa relayed on X, the righty’s ulnar collateral ligament is fine but he has a stress reaction in his elbow and won’t be able to throw for six to eight weeks. Since there’s just over seven weeks remaining in the regular season, he won’t be coming back this year.

2024 will ultimately go down as a mostly lost season for the righty. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year and was able to come off the injured list in July. He made just one start, allowing three earned runs in four innings, before going back on the IL.

Today’s news is somewhat positive in the sense that the righty’s UCL is not affected and he can have a normal offseason in preparation for 2025. But it’s also less than ideal for him to be going into next year with just four innings thrown this year. Ideally, he would have had the last couple of months of the schedule to compile a decent workload to build off next year, but that won’t be possible now.

The Colorado rotation has been an issue this year, to put it mildly. The club’s starters have a collective 5.45 earned run average, worst in the majors. That’s not necessarily a surprise, between the usual challenges of pitching at Coors Field and the injury issues the club has had. In addition to Márquez, Antonio Senzatela has also missed the entire season thus far due to his own Tommy John surgery recovery. He’s slated to start a rehab assignment tonight. Kyle Freeland also missed a couple of months due to an elbow strain and has only made 12 starts this year.

With Márquez unable to come back this year, the group is unlikely to get back on track anytime soon. Just today, another domino fell as Ryan Feltner was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, though it’s not yet known exactly how much time the club is expecting him to miss.

It’s theoretically possible to imagine the group being in better shape next year with with full and healthy seasons from Márquez, Senzatela and Freeland. The Rockies signed all three of those pitchers to extensions as they envisioned that trio as their rotation core. Márquez was in the final season of his deal last year when he went under the knife, but he and the club subsequently reunited on a second extension that goes through 2025.

The extended absence from Márquez complicates things somewhat. He only tossed 20 innings last year, meaning he’ll be going into 2025 with just 24 innings thrown in the previous two seasons. That could lead to tricky questions about how to handle his workload next year. He did toss 975 1/3 innings from 2017 to 2022 with a 4.38 ERA, tossing between 162 and 196 innings in each full season of that stretch as well as 81 2/3 frames in the shortened 2020 campaign, but it’s fair to wonder if his elbow will allow him to simply jump back to that level.

There are other questions to be answered as well. As mentioned, Senzatela will be rehabbing and could get some major league starts under his belt before the season ends. Freeland has been off the IL for about six weeks now and seems healthy apart from a blister he’s been dealing with lately, but he could finish with an ERA above 5.00 for the second straight season. Though to be fair, his .348 BABIP and 62.4% strand rate might be clouding things this year. His 4.13 FIP and 4.24 SIERA suggest a sunnier outlook.

Cal Quantrill figures to be in the mix since he has one more arbitration season left and wasn’t traded prior to the deadline. He has a 4.56 ERA over his 23 starts this year. Feltner is having a decent season and will be part of the calculus as well, as long as this shoulder injury doesn’t linger into next year. His even 5.00 ERA doesn’t look great but his .321 BABIP and and 62.9% strand rate are both on the unlucky side. His 20.1% strikeout rate is a bit low but his 7.3% walk rate and 45.4% ground ball rate are both solid, which is why he has a 4.30 FIP and 4.26 SIERA. Austin Gomber, like Quantrill, can be retained for one more arbitration season and is having decent campaign with a 4.66 ERA in 21 starts.

Though this year has been rough, the club arguably has six decent starters on hand for its 2025 rotation between Márquez, Senzatela, Freeland, Quantrill, Gomber and Feltner. Baseball rarely allows clubs to follow a script, however, and the picture will undoubtedly change between now and then. The latest on Márquez already puts a bit of a wrench in their plans, though ideally things will progress well after his upcoming shutdown period.

Rockies Place German Marquez On Injured List

By | at

The Rockies placed starter Germán Márquez on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to July 19, due to elbow inflammation. Colorado recalled right-hander Noah Davis to take the open spot on the active roster.

Márquez heads back to the shelf one week after making his return from Tommy John surgery. The right-hander only made one start, tossing four innings of three-run ball against the Mets the day before the All-Star Break. A quick return to the injured list with another elbow issue is cause for concern, but it seems the Rox expect to avoid the worst. Manager Bud Black told reporters that the team hopes to have Márquez back within a couple weeks (link via Kyle Newman of the Denver Post).

Colorado is well out of playoff contention, so the priority is making sure Márquez gets through the ’24 campaign healthy. The Rockies signed the Venezuelan hurler to a two-year, $20MM contract last September. Márquez is making $10MM annually on a deal that was mostly geared towards 2025. Colorado knew that the former All-Star would miss a good chunk of this season as he finished his rehab. This season is largely about building his innings count so he can hold up over a full schedule next year.

This bout of elbow inflammation represents an obvious setback, although it’s possible Márquez returns in August and can pitch for a few weeks down the stretch. There was never much of an expectation that Colorado would trade the 29-year-old this closely removed from surgery. Today’s IL placement seemingly slams that door shut.

Austin Gomber takes the ball tonight against the Red Sox in the series opener at Coors Field. Márquez had been slated to go on Tuesday. Newman writes that left-hander Ty Blach is likely to get the start instead. Blach has started nine of 16 appearances on the season, turning in a 5.46 ERA through 59 1/3 innings. He could step into the starting five behind Cal Quantrill, Kyle Freeland, Gomber and Ryan Feltner. The Rockies are reportedly willing to consider trade offers on Quantrill and Gomber, potentially opening up another rotation spot or two in the next week.

Rockies Activate German Marquez From 60-Day IL

By | at

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.

Kris Bryant Discusses Injuries, Rockies Tenure

By | at

Kris Bryant and the Rockies have endured a brutal start to the seven-year deal the sides agreed upon prior to the 2022 season. Since he landed in Colorado, the veteran has appeared in just 135 of the club’s 363 contests and has generally struggled at the plate even when healthy enough to take the field, slashing just .249/.329/.391 in 571 trips to the plate with the club. Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post took an in-depth look at Bryant’s Rockies tenure this morning, noting that despite the veteran’s struggles he still believes he’ll be able to contribute in Colorado once healthy.

“I know [my talent] is still in there. There are flashes of it, and I can’t wait to get out there and play again,” Bryant told Saunders.

It’s an open question whether Bryant will eventually get healthy enough to rediscover the talent that convinced the Rockies to invest $182MM in him just over two years ago, but it’s hard to deny how valuable such an outcome would be for Colorado. The second-overall pick in the 2013 draft, Bryant’s career kicked off with a bang when he slashed an excellent .284/.377/.522 in 306 games as the Cubs’ starting third baseman over his first two years in the big leagues. Those seasons saw him earn two All Star appearances, a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP award, and hoist the first World Series trophy on the north side of Chicago in more than a century. Bryant would go on to finish seventh in NL MVP voting the following year and make two more All Star appearances throughout his time with the club before wrapping up his Cubs career with a .279/.378/.508 slash line across 833 games.

That incredible talent has not been on display in Colorado, but it appears he could return to action and resume his attempts to rediscover his power stroke in the near future. MLB.com’s Injury Tracker indicates that Bryant is on track to make a relatively quick return to the Rockies, with manager Bud Black telling reporters yesterday that Bryant is slated to begin a rehab assignment later this week and could return to the big league club as soon as May 17 in San Francisco. That the 32-year-old is nearing a return hardly means his injury woes are entirely behind him. Bryant told Saunders that the disc problems and severe arthritis he’s dealing with will be an issue throughout the remainder of his playing career. Even so, the former MVP went on to note that he’s currently feeling “the best [he’s] felt in a long time” in terms of his health.

Bryant isn’t the only player making his way toward a return for the Rockies, as Black also told reporters (including Luke Zahlman of the Denver Gazette) that Bryant will be joined in Albuquerque by outfielder Nolan Jones. Jones, who impressed with a 135 wRC+ in his first season with the Rockies last year but struggled badly in 26 games this season before hitting the injured list, is said by Black to be “a couple days” behind Bryant but nonetheless figures to start a rehab assignment of his own in the near future with a return by the end of the month on the table.

Further away from big league action is right-hander German Marquez, who underwent Tommy John surgery a year ago today. Black told reporters (including Zahlman) that Marquez is making progress in his rehab and has already thrown four innings in extended Spring Training and a scoreless frame in the Arizona Complex League. That being said, the right-hander figures to require a lengthy rehab assignment once he’s ready to begin starting games, with Black suggesting that the righty will likely need five or six rehab outings before he can return to the big league mound. Marquez returning in time to pitch the second half for Colorado would be a huge boost to the club’s rotation, which currently ranks dead last in the majors with a 5.91 ERA.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top