Rockies Veteran German Marquez Reflects on His Time in Colorado

Saturday's start just happened to be one of Marquez's better outings of the season. In a 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels, the right-hander went seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits with five strikeouts.

"It was special because I didn't want the score to get too big -- just wanted to keep the score right there," he said to MLB.com's Thomas Harding.

At 30 years old, Marquez has had the worst year of his career. In 25 starts, the right-hander has thrown 122 innings to the tune of a 6.49 ERA with 82 strikeouts. His bWAR is -0.8, in his first full season since 2022 thanks to Tommy John and other injuries, it wasn't the way that Marquez wanted to go out if his time in Denver is done.

But he definitely went out how he wanted to in his Coors Field finale.

"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. I've got one more start. 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," the right-hander said in the same interview.

He will definitely be remembered as a Rockie, as his name is plastered all over franchise leaderboards.

This year, Marquez became the first Rockies pitcher to reach 1,000 strikeouts and holds the records with 1,068. He's thrown the third most amount of innings (1,142), has the third most amount of wins (68), is 5th in bWAR (15.1), 9th in ERA (4.64) and fourth in games started (199).

Now, Marquez faces the possibility of playing in something other than a Rockies uniform. There hasn't been much chatter about his future with the team, but it would seem pretty likely that Colorado is heavily in on him during free agency. Maruqez seems to love Denver and it seems to love him back. The Rockies should make it happen.