Colorado Rockies: The top 25 players under 25 years old

2 German Marquez

Our Olivia Greene wrote in this recent article that, “German Marquez is going to show that he’s ace material by the end of the 2018 season.”

I completely agree with her assessment as do many I’ve talked to in the Rockies organization. I still tilt to the side of Gray being the best pitcher that Colorado has but I was told the day the Rockies acquired him with Jake McGee from Tampa Bay that, “this was not the Jake McGee trade.” A few months later, the Rockies saw him at Spring Training and I was told, “he has the most potential in our organization.”

When you can gas 100 in the first inning and couple it with one of the quickest spinning curveballs in the game, you get credited as such.

Marquez accumulated a 3.2 bWAR in his freshman season, which occured for him with only 41 innings of experience above Double-A. He just turned 23 and you have seen him pitch. When he’s on, it is dominant. Marquez ran into some issues with the home run ball late last season, but so too did many pitchers. He struck out over eight batters per nine innings and an ERA of 4.39.

Marquez could be something very special. At worst, he is what he already is which is a third starter in the bigs. That’s something the Rockies haven’t had many of in their 25 years.