An MLB debut is a shining moment for baseball players. It is the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice, with a little bit of luck thrown in. It is their first chance to prove they belong and show the league what they’ve got.

I asked multiple Rockies players about their MLB debuts, and here are the unique stories that brought them to where they are now.

This is the first article in a multi-part series.

Part 1: Veteran players who made their debuts with the Rockies
Part 2: Young players who made their debuts with the Rockies
Part 3: Veteran players who made their debuts with an organization other than the Rockies
Part 4: Retired players

★ ★ ★

So far in 2025, we’ve seen seven MLB debuts with the Colorado Rockies:

An MLB debut is a big moment in any player’s life. It’s a dream that many of them have been chasing since they were children, and not everybody has the same path to the majors.

For example, Wynton Bernard made his MLB debut in August 2022 after 11 years of minor league and independent ball.

But on the other end of the spectrum, Ezequiel Tovar became the youngest Rockies player ever to debut when he came up at the end of the 2022 season at 21 years and 53 days old.

Everyone’s story is different, but here are some that the players shared with me about their MLB debuts.

First up, veteran players who made their MLB debuts with the Rockies.

Germán Márquez (debut: Sept. 8, 2016; Colorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres)

“It felt like this dream from when I was a little kid, and I feel like they are the same,” Márquez said. “You play baseball to be in the big leagues, and it’s a really good dream.”

And where was Márquez when he got the call?

“I was in Triple-A,” he said. “The season was over, and then the manager called me into his office, and he told me. The first person that I called was my mom, and she started crying, and the next day I was in Denver.”

He has some advice for young guys making their debuts:

“They have to be healthy and consistent to be in the big leagues and play in the big leagues,” he said.

Márquez pitched 2 1⁄3 innings of relief and allowed three runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts against the Padres in his debut.

Ryan McMahon (debut: Aug. 12, 2017; Colorado Rockies @ Miami Marlins)

“Shoot man, I flew across the country to Miami!” McMahon recalled. “It was just a whirlwind, it went by so fast.”

He flew in from New Orleans where the Albuquerque Isotopes were playing the then-New Orleans Baby Cakes (then-AAA Marlins). He recalled making a base-running mistake in the game and was subsequently called into manager Glenallen Hill’s office after the game.

Hill asked him if he did the right thing in that moment, and McMahon admitted to the mistake. And Hill’s response was, “Well, don’t mess it up again in the big leagues tomorrow.”

And the first thing that happened when he walked into that MLB clubhouse?

“I got there early before everybody just because I flew in that morning,” he said. “Mark Reynolds had gotten there early because he was kind of hurt at the time, and I think that’s why I got called up. So Mark walks in and looks at me and says, ‘Oh shit, what’s up, Mac? Did they DL me?’ and walked right past me into the training room.

“That’s one of my favorite vivid memories because Mark was great to me,” he chuckled. “He gave me a lot of shit, but he was great.”

McMahon said he doesn’t really keep up with Reynolds a whole lot, but did see him at spring training this past year.

“He was out there with his kid’s high school team, so he was screaming at me while I was walking up to bat, and I couldn’t help but turn around and just laugh.”

McMahon went 0-for-1 in his debut against the Miami Marlins.

Kyle Freeland (debut: April 7, 2017; Colorado Rockies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers)

“I remember mine like it was yesterday,” Freeland said. “It was over nine years ago now, but it’s a special moment that I’ll never forget. It’s something that you and your family cherish for a very long time.”

And for Freeland, it was extra special because he debuted for his home team in his home ballpark.

“I think we had. like, two or three days left in (spring training) camp, and Buddy pulled me into his office and told me, ‘You’re gonna be breaking with the team, and you’re gonna be starting the Home Opener as your debut,’” he said.

“It was very special,” he continued, “and that’s one thing that Bud is so good at is recognizing those kinds of moments and doing everything in his power to get that moment for that guy at that time, and he was able to do that for me — my debut, Home Opener, everything in my hometown. He understood what he could do for me, and he made sure he got it done.”

And what does he remember most from that day?

“I remember having the bases loaded in the first inning, thinking, ‘I’m gonna get absolutely throttled in my debut,’ but ended up getting out of it, and we got a win.”

Freeland pitched six innings and allowed one run on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts against the Dodgers in his debut.

Sean Bouchard (debut: June 19, 2022; Colorado Rockies vs. San Diego Padres)

Sean Bouchard has had an up-and-down MLB career with the Rockies, and was recently optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque on May 16. He made his MLB debut in 2022 after being drafted in the 2017 MLB Draft and working his way through the Rockies’ system.

San Diego native Sean Bouchard getting the start in LF for his debut… against his hometown team!

Welcome to the Show, Sean! pic.twitter.com/ISseyNW2bw

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 19, 2022

“I was actually sleeping,” Bouchard said.

“We went to bed late and slept in a decent amount. I was in my place in Albuquerque and got about seven phone calls from (Warren) Schaeffer, who was the manager in Albuquerque at the time in 2022. I had a bunch of phone calls from Chris Forbes, who was our farm director, and a few different calls from Paul Egins, who’s the travel secretary. I literally woke up, and when something like that happens, you feel like you did something wrong. And because I’d been playing well — but it was never really on my radar per se — I was like ‘I must’ve done something wrong. Everyone’s calling me, I got in trouble.’

“So right away, right when I wake up, my heart starts going,” he continued. “I’m going zero to 100 and I’m just like, ‘Calm down. I need to call one of these people back.’ So I called Schaeff and was like, ‘Hey, what’s up? Sorry I missed your call, I was sleeping,’ and he’s like, ‘Dude, all good. You’re going up! You’ve got to fly to Denver in a couple hours, so you need to pack.’”

Bouchard was called up to replace Garrett Hampson, who went on the IL with COVID-19. And his arrival to Coors Field was a bit unconventional.

“It was a day game in the middle of June,” he recalled. “I showed up in the middle of the game and remember walking into the locker room and thinking ‘This is crazy, I’ve been here before,’ and then it was like the fourth or fifth inning. I just ran out, didn’t know what was going on, but ended up starting two days later on Father’s Day, so that was cool. But yeah it was a crazy situation.”

As Bouchard mentioned, he didn’t make his MLB Debut until Father’s Day on June 19th in front of his friends and family, including his father Todd.

“We were playing the Padres, Blake Snell was pitching,” he said. “It was a really cool experience, obviously, as a debut is in general. I did walk in my first at-bat, which turned out to be a pretty strong omen for what my career has been so far. I was 0-for-3 that day, and then it was a getaway day. I remember flying to Miami the next day, and I actually tore my oblique the very next day — literally the second day in the big leagues — so that was a tough situation.

“But other than that, the debut was cool and fun. It’s not a classic ‘get called in after the game, the whole celebratory thing,’ but that was my first introduction to how fast things change around here. Anything could happen in minutes. It was cool, it was fun, but it’s hard to complain whenever you debut.”

Bouchard went went 0-for-3 with a walk in his debut against the San Diego Padres.

★ ★ ★

With the state of the Rockies right now, we will likely see more players make their debuts as the future of the clubs takes shape. I will share their stories later in the season