Mariners Trade Proposal: German Marquez from the Rockies

I like to throw in fake quotes and thoughts that I imagine would run through a reader’s head when they are going through my articles. I’ll do it again here because I’m sure it’s going to be the first thing that pops into a decent amount of people’s heads when they see the title. “Hey, isn’t German Marquez unavailable? The Rockies wouldn’t trade him to the Mariners.” Maybe so, but I actually worked a bit with the fine folks over at Rox Pile to make sure this was a reasonable deal.

They mentioned it as well, letting me know that it would take a lot because of the Rockies stance on him. So that’s going to be a part of this. Do you want to pry away a great pitcher from a team that doesn’t mind keeping him around? It’s going to take a few of your assets to do so.

Here’s what I was originally going to do for a trade proposal. Giving up a nice high prospect in Hancock, a borderline top 100 in Deloach, and then another guy in Juan Then with a pretty good gap between his floor and ceiling.

German Marquez is available from the Rockies, but the Mariners would have to pay a good price

However, it never got that far when talking to Rox Pile. We went back and forth, but only a little bit. After proposing a starter deal to them to gain interest in some guys, this is what Rox Pile said to go with for a deal.

Polcovich is a nice 2B/3B infield utility piece that the Rockies could use wherever they see fit. Likely second, since they have Ryan McMahon at third. He will turn 23 in February and would be a fun young piece to have. He’s probably jumping all the way up to somewhere around 10th for the Rockies in their prospect rankings.

When MLB.com updated their rankings at the end of August, the Rockies were 26th. He’s not a massive prospect though, and would only help that ranking a little bit. This is where Zach Deloach steps in.

He’s not in the top-5 for the Mariners, but please don’t let that fool you. Arguing for a “top-3” or a “top-5” guy all depends on the scenario. There’s a strong chance that when prospect rankings update in the late winter, that Deloach will have jumped into the top 100. The Mariners 6th guy would be top 2 in a lot of organizations. For the Rockies, he likely falls in the 2-4 range, right next to recent draftee Benny Montgomery and LHP Ryan Rolison.

Rox Pile thought it would be fun to take on Justus Sheffield. Some people like him, some don’t, but one thing is for certain. It would be interesting and exciting to see brothers pitching on the same team, and this would unite Justus with his brother, Jordan.

With German Marquez, you’re getting a guy who is a little wild, leading the league with 15 wild pitches and a walk rate of 3.2BB/9 last season. He strikes out about a guy per inning, and is incredibly durable so far in his young career, going 29-33-28-13-32. That 13 lead the league in 2020, so it looks like he has missed about 9 starts in five years. Give me that, all day, every day.

He did have a 4.40 ERA last year, raising his career ERA to 4.28. However, his career FIP is 3.85. You see this often in Colorado. It’s why a lot of Mariners fans wanted Jon Gray from the Rockies. It could likely be the same with Marquez, improving his ability and performance by moving out of Colorado.

He’s been better on the road as well, with an ERA of 3.85, and a slash line allowed of .241/.297/.411 (at home, it’s .269/.326/.433). I think you’d be getting a pitcher like his road numbers represent, someone whose pitches start moving a bit more, biting harder, and breaking further as they get out of the thin air of Coors.

Once they said go for it, I decided to just put it as is. Why not? How do you feel about this trade?  Let us know what you think, and keep an eye out for the team over at Rox Pile, with their thoughts and response as well.