Top Rockies trade candidate heads to IL just before deadline

After another rough three innings in Sunday’s loss one-time Colorado Rockies ace German Marquez is going back on the Injured List this time with biceps tendon inflammation.

The former All-Star right-hander has stayed healthy this year but is performing poorly in his true return from Tommy John Surgery, which cost him almost all of the 2023 and 2024 seasons. In 2025, Marquez has the fourth-worst ERA in baseball among pitchers with at least 90 innings thrown. He’s got a 5.67 ERA over 98.1 innings encompassing 20 starts where he is 3-11 during the Rockies abysmal season.

Marquez is expected to go on the Injured List on Wednesday and Tanner Gordon will start for Colorado against St. Louis. The starter had an MRI done on his right shoulder, showing no structural damage per reports. He suffered the injury in his final outing before the All-Star Break — one of his best starts of the season.

The injury comes at a bad time for both the Rockies and Marquez. The starter is a free agent at season’s end, meaning he has a lot to prove, but it also gives the team a lot of incentive to trade him. Even with such a rough season, the fact he’s a veteran arm who has pitched in big games before could be convincing enough for a team to throw a prospect to Colorado for him. But that may be too much to ask for with an active injury at the time of the deal, which would need to get done ahead of next week’s deadline.

The longest tenured Rockies player was a really solid starter before his Tommy John surgery in 2023. He’s still pumping in a fastball and getting some misses on a knuckle-curve, plus he looked to be getting stronger recently.

At the very least, the Rockies won’t have another chance to showcase Marquez ahead of the deadline, so a team would be buying on the information we have now — a tough sell to a fan base.

Marquez ranks fourth all-time in WAR for pitchers in Rockies franchise history, third in wins and fifth in ERA. He set the franchise career record for strikeouts recently and is one of the final members of the current roster that was on the 2017 and 2018 playoff teams.

The Rockies are on pace for one of the worst seasons in the history of baseball and will easily cross triple-digit losses, perhaps as soon as next month. They’re likely to sell at the deadline, though they do not have much to offer. If Marquez doesn’t get shipped out, the team could sell Ryan McMahon — another player that was around for those postseason runs.

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