The San Diego Padres have long needed starting pitching help and have addressed the need by signing a former All-Star looking to bounce back.
The San Diego Padres have addressed their thin starting rotation depth by signing a former All-Star looking to rebound from a brutal 2025 season.
Former Colorado Rockies right-hander Germán Márquez and the Padres are in agreement on a one-year deal, per ESPN’s Alden González.
“Márquez, 30, looks to bounce back from a rough first year back from Tommy John surgery and will do it in a far more favorable environment,” González wrote Saturday. “Not long ago, he was one of game’s most durable starters.”
Márquez took a beating last season, posting a 3-16 record with a disastrous 6.70 ERA and 1.71 WHIP across 26 starts in his 10th season with Colorado. The 2018 Silver Slugger winner (!) has been a consistent inning-eater for the Rockies in the toughest pitching environment.
Having a 4.67 ERA through 203 appearances as a Rockie is impressive, especially when the team around him hasn’t been a contender since 2018, when he was a pivotal member of the team that made it past the Chicago Cubs in the National League Wild Card game.
That year, he went 14-11 with a 3.77 ERA and 1.20 WHIP across 33 starts (196 innings). Excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season, in which he led the league in starts (13) and innings pitched (81.2), he made at least 28 starts in every season from 2017 to 2022.
That durability combined with his effectiveness has made him one of the most consistent pitchers in Major League Baseball. Unfortunately, over the last couple of seasons, the injury bug hit Márquez hard.
After making just four starts in 2023, Márquez underwent Tommy John surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and missed the remainder of the season. In 2024, he made just one start before being shut down with a stress reaction in the same elbow.
Although he spent time on the injured list with right biceps tendinitis last season, the fact that he was healthy enough to make 26 starts is enough to celebrate, despite the poor outcomes.
He now has the chance to join a Padres rotation that is talented but lacks depth. As of Friday, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell had left-hander JP Sears as the Padres’ fifth starter, but the final spots are always open to competition. This change of scenery out of incredibly high altitude could energize Márquez to get back to All-Star form.
The Padres have now made three signings Saturday to address several weaknesses.