{"id":573408,"date":"2026-02-15T04:46:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573408\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T04:46:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T04:46:22","slug":"padres-german-marquez-agree-to-one-year-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573408\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres, Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez Agree To One-Year Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Padres and right-hander Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez<\/a> are in agreement on a one-year deal, according to Alden Gonz\u00e1lez of ESPN<\/a>. The precise guarantee is not yet known, although there is a mutual option for 2027, per Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic<\/a>. The team has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to open space for the L.A. Sports Management client.<\/p>\n

The team was known to be looking for low-cost rotation pieces and a complementary bat, per comments from president of baseball operations A.J. Preller a few days ago. They achieved the latter by bringing in Nick Castellanos<\/a> on a one-year deal upon his release from the Phillies. Now, they\u2019ve addressed the rotation side through one-year-deals for M\u00e1rquez and fellow right-hander Griffin Canning<\/a>. Canning is coming off an Achilles injury and projects as a back-end starter once he is healthy enough to return. M\u00e1rquez figures to serve as back-of-the-rotation depth as well.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old (31 later this month) is coming off a ten-year major-league run with the Rockies. After a brief debut in 2016, he settled in as one of the team\u2019s most reliable starters from 2017-21. In that span, he totaled 793 2\/3 innings over 135 starts and posted a 4.25 ERA, a 24.0% strikeout rate, and a 6.9% walk rate. M\u00e1rquez excelled through a combination of control and strong groundball tendencies. He was worth 15.5 fWAR in those five years and continually posted groundball rates in the mid-40s and low-50s, including a career-high 51.6% in 180 innings in 2021.<\/p>\n

His performance began to wane from 2022 onward. He still made 31 starts in 2022, but his strikeout rate fell below 20% for the first time since his 20 2\/3-inning sample in 2016. His run prevention slipped as well, with M\u00e1rquez posting a below-average 4.95 ERA and elevated peripheral stats. He then underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2023, costing him the rest of that year and the first few months of 2024. His return in July 2024 only lasted one start, and he spent the rest of the season on the injured list with elbow inflammation, although his UCL was reportedly fine.<\/p>\n

In 2025, M\u00e1rquez pitched 126 1\/3 innings over 26 starts but was clearly working with diminished stuff. His four-seamer was down to 94.8 MPH after averaging 95.6 MPH in his most recent healthy season in 2022. His sinker, which used over 20% of the time, also slipped from 95.1 MPH to 94.3 MPH. Statcast graded his fastballs in just the first percentile by run value, while his knuckle curve, formerly his best pitch, also earned career-worst grades. The strikeouts dried up even further, with M\u00e1rquez\u2019s 14.0% strikeout rate ranking third-worst among starters with at least 100 innings. The Rockies decided to move on as M\u00e1rquez reached free agency.<\/p>\n

Perhaps a change of scenery will help M\u00e1rquez recover some of his strikeout and groundball tendencies as he moves further from injury. He\u2019ll get that chance with the Padres, who now have a decent amount of rotation depth. The team saw Dylan Cease<\/a> depart for the Blue Jays but re-signed Michael King<\/a> on a three-year deal in December. Yu Darvish<\/a> will miss 2026 while recovering from an internal brace procedure, and he is reportedly<\/a> contemplating retirement. Joe Musgrove<\/a> is returning from Tommy John surgery and will be guaranteed a spot if healthy. That leaves King, Nick Pivetta<\/a>, and Musgrove in the top three spots, with some combination of M\u00e1rquez, Canning (when healthy), Randy V\u00e1squez<\/a>, and JP Sears<\/a> taking the last two spots.<\/p>\n

Each of King, Musgrove, M\u00e1rquez and Canning comes with injury risk, though the Padres always seemed likelier to stockpile depth than bring a big-name starter at this stage in the offseason. Zac Gallen<\/a> was the last impact starter in free agency before re-signing<\/a> with the Diamondbacks. Either way, his $18.7MM luxury tax number might have been too much given the team\u2019s reported payroll constraints. Low-cost signings like Canning and M\u00e1rquez seem easier to accommodate, barring a potential buyout agreement for Darvish.<\/p>\n

Financial terms have not been disclosed yet for Canning or M\u00e1rquez. RosterResource<\/a> has the team at a $264.7MM luxury tax payroll for 2026, putting them in the second tier of penalization. The Padres paid the luxury tax in 2025 and would count as second-time payors in 2026. Thus, any money guaranteed to Canning and M\u00e1rquez would come with an additional 42% surcharge.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres and right-hander Germ\u00e1n M\u00e1rquez are in agreement on a one-year deal, according to Alden Gonz\u00e1lez of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,140,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-573408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-german-marquez","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}