This year’s Winter Meetings are now in the rear-view mirror, and the merciful end of 2025 is quickly approaching. The Rockies under new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta have extensively
focused on filling out the front office and big league coaching staff.
The Rockies have hired a general manager, two assistant general managers, an entire new pitching coaching and development staff, a hitting coach, and a bench coach. The majority of the pieces for both the front office and coaching staff are there—though of course there are still other hires to make and more resources to push towards player coaching a development.
However, something the Rockies have yet to do is make any major roster moves. While they parted ways with several former prospects and some of their previous players became free agents, they haven’t made any additions to the team outside of a handful of minor league contracts and the Rule 5 draft.
What ties the Rockies’ many new hires and limited roster additions together is that they all come from outside the organization with no—or very minimal—previous ties to the Rockies. We’ve praised the Rockies for bringing in so many important new pieces from outside—something they’ve rarely done in their history and especially so over the last seven seasons of losing. Yet that doesn’t mean all previous ties must be severed for good.
Last week, Joelle Milholm explored the idea of bringing veteran reliever Tyler Kinley back into the fold. Now a free agent, the Rockies traded Kinley to the Atlanta Braves at last season’s deadline. She also mentioned a handful of other names the Rockies could consider reunions with like Brent Suter.
This got me thinking about another former Rockies pitcher the team could feasibly reunite with this winter.
After ten seasons with the Rockies, right-handed starting pitcher Germán Márquez is a free agent for the first time in his career. Márquez would be the first to tell you the 2025 season didn’t go as planned. In his return from Tommy John surgery and a subsequent elbow fracture, the franchise strikeout leader posted a miserable 6.70 ERA over 26 starts and was worth an abysmal -1.1 wins above replacement per Baseball Reference.
No one would blame Márquez for seeking a fresh start away from the only big league team he’s ever known. However, there has been little movement on that end. It’s entirely possible the market for Márquez on a big league contract simply isn’t there after such a rough season.
But you know what else isn’t there? The entire pitching coaching and development staff that Márquez worked with throughout his career.
The Rockies have completely overhauled their pitching coaching and development staff for the 2026 season. They brought in a varied group of innovative young minds from across the league with many different focuses and disciplines from pitcher evaluation to player development and even physical performance.
The bulk of the Rockies’ rotation is hardly set in stone. If the two parties could agree on a reasonable, low-cost Major League deal, the 30-year-old Márquez could return to his “home for life” while also getting the fresh start he’s looking for.
Márquez has largely struggled since his 2021 All-Star season. From mechanical and arsenal tweaks, and his need for Tommy John surgery, he hasn’t been able to regain his footing. However, after former manager Bud Black was fired we received glimpses that the pitcher he once was might still be in there somewhere.
“Here’s where I point out that Warren Schaeffer has had an impact on what we’re seeing from the players,” explained Ryan Spilborghs on his show “Spilly on the Rox.” “They’re pitching a little bit more to their to more to their strengths versus just pitching with the old philosophy that we saw with Bud Black where they establish down and away and then mix and match. I think they’re starting to kind of get into the metrics of how their stuff plays.”
Márquez went on a stretch of 11 starts shortly after the departure of Black in which he posted a 3.55 ERA over 58 1/3 innings with 52 strikeouts. He did also give up nine home runs and carry a 4.39 FIP, but compared to his bloated 8.78 ERA over 40 innings to start the season it was a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, Márquez developed right biceps tendinitis—not uncommon in pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery—shortly after the All-Star Break. He didn’t return until late August, and when he did he once again looked like a shell of his former self. In his final six starts of the season, he had a 10.29 ERA, an 8.56 FIP, and struck out just 10 batters over 28 innings.
It was a difficult ending for his time in a Rockies uniform, but all hope is not lost. Márquez will only be 31-years-old for the 2026 season, and will also be more than a full season removed from his surgery. The new-look Rockies pitching coaching and development staff could help the former All-Star get back to basics and fine tune what works for him.
Márquez struggled brutally in 2025, but his knuckle curveball is still a dastardly pitch when located well. It was his best pitch last season with opposing batters hitting .208 against it. The pitch carried a 20.6 PutAway% and a solid 36.8 % whiff rate. If he can better locate the pitch and avoid being punished—he gave up eight home runs on hanging curveballs—Márquez could make his knuckle curveball even more effective.
Mechanical tweaks could also help the righty regain some of the velocity he has lost since his surgery, something that affected all of his offerings but especially hindered his four-seam fastball. Márquez’ fastball was down 1.3 MPH in 2025 compared to his limited 2024 sample size and down between 0.8 and 1.1 MPH compared to his pre-surgery seasons.
The Rockies’ overhauled pitching staff could help a healthy Germán Márquez find his form, or potentially even help him do something he could never really do under the previous staff. He could continue to develop as a pitcher.
If the cost is reasonable as a low risk, high reward move, would it be worth it for the Rockies to reunite with one of the most decorated pitchers in franchise history?
Rockies remain linked with Phillies veteran free agent infielder | Sports Illustrated
The Rockies have been linked to former Phillies and Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins this offseason. The Rockies could look to sign Hoskins to a short-term deal with the ability to flip him at the trade deadline if he finds success. Our own Skyler Timmins brought in Hoskins in his off-season simulation of trying to fix the Rockies.
You might forgive someone if they decided to ease themselves back into strenuous activity after a procedure as harrowing as an awake craniotomy. That someone, however, is not Rockies prospect utilityman Braylen Wimmer. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor during the Arizona Fall League and having it removed, Wimmer is already finding himself back in the cage and taking swings. Wimmer was even trying to take swings before he had even regained his full ability to speak following the surgery. Now the 2023 8th round pick is pushing to continue his career and his rise through the Rockies’ farm system.
“The only thing I can do is move forward. I’m grateful to be playing again, so I’m going to make the most of it and just be happy that every day I can focus on Spring Training and getting better for 2026.”
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