Padres Designate Germán Márquez For Assignment

The Padres announced that left-hander Robbie Ray has been added to the active roster after being acquired in a trade with the Giants earlier this week. In a corresponding move, right-hander Germán Márquez has been designated for assignment.

The Friars gave Márquez a one-year deal in the offseason and lumped him into their rotation battle. He had struggled in 2025 but perhaps the Padres figured getting him away from Coors Field would be good for his results. They also were throwing all different kinds of things at the wall to see what would stick. In dire need of rotation help coming into the year but not having huge spending capacity, they gave modest deals to Márquez, Griffin Canning and Walker Buehler. After the season started, they added Lucas Giolito into the mix.

For the most part, those signings haven’t worked out. Giolito posted a 5.16 earned run average over seven starts before elbow inflammation put him on the injured list. Buehler, Canning and Márquez all have ERAs north of five as well. Around Michael King, the club has been getting creative, using a lot of openers and doing bullpen games. Clearly, some help was needed, which is why they acquired Ray and Casey Mize ahead of the deadline.

Going forward, King, Ray and Mize are in three spots. Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote today that Randy Vásquez will probably go back into the rotation after some decent results of late. Buehler should hold a spot as well, despite his 5.18 ERA. His strikeout and walk rate are close to average and he’s getting grounders at an above-average clip. A somewhat unlucky strand rate and batting average on balls in play have seemingly hurt him, hence his 4.46 FIP.

Márquez, on the other hand, has a similar 5.26 ERA but worse underlying numbers. His 15.7% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate and 37.4% ground ball rate are all poor figures. His .258 batting average on balls in play and 79.8% strand rate are to the fortunate side. His 6.61 FIP believes he deserves far worse. The Friars presumably didn’t have much faith about his results going forward, so he has been bumped off the roster. He had some good years with the Rockies but missed most of 2023 and 2024 due to Tommy John surgery and posted a 6.70 ERA last year.

With the deadline now in the past, Márquez can’t be traded, though he wouldn’t have had trade value anyway. No one would even claim him off waivers, given his performance and contract. If he clears outright waivers, he has enough service time to elect free agency and keep the money left on his deal. The Padres might skip that formality and release him.

The Friars will remain on the hook for the money left on his deal. Once he’s a free agent, another club could sign him and would only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time spent on the roster. That amount would be subtracted from what San Diego pays.