PEORIA, Ariz. — Germán Márquez sounds as invigorated as the Padres need him to be.
“I’m excited to be here,” Márquez said Thursday. “I spent almost 10 years with the Colorado Rockies. This is something new for me. I’m gonna give my best to this team. … I’m excited to play with a team that wants to win. When I was young, I had team that liked to win, and it was a cool feeling.”
Maybe that and some more distance from his 2023 Tommy John surgery and the need to show he can still be an effective starting pitcher will conspire to prompt a renaissance in the 30-year-old right-hander.
“I worked hard to get a job and show that I’m healthy and I’m going to be healthy the whole year,” he said.
Márquez, who signed a one-year contract that guarantees him $1.75 million, was one of the National League’s better starters for a good portion of his decade with the Rockies.
He has been eminently hittable for the past two seasons.
Despite making about half his starts at mile-high Coors Field, Márquez was effective enough from 2017 until his surgery in May 2023 to go 64-55 in 170 starts. In that span, he struck out batters at a 23.1% rate, got a 48.4% groundball rate and limited batters to a .317 on-base percentage.
His strikeout rate in 27 starts over the past two seasons fell to 14.1% while his groundball rate dipped to 36.1% and the OBP he yielded skyrocketed to .380.
This was not a Coors Field thing. He was worse on the road in 2025.
Márquez joins former Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler, another pitcher who spent a lot of time in the National League West and had a lot of success, looking to rebound as they compete with four other pitchers for the final spot (or two) in the Padres’ rotation.
Both have had their struggles the past two seasons while working back from Tommy John surgery. The Padres hope Márquez being another year removed from the procedure will help, and that pitching coach Ruben Niebla can facilitate some mechanical adjustments to improve the life on his fastball and revitalize his curveball.
As much as anything, though, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller capsulized what the Padres see as a cause for optimism when he said of Márquez: “He’s another guy who has something to prove.”
Testing
The Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) system at Peoria Stadium was a bit off when the Padres held live batting practice there Thursday.
“I think they just didn’t have our measurements yet,” manager Craig Stammen said. “So it wasn’t perfect. But we got the feeling of what it’s like with an umpire back there and tapping your head in the appropriate amount of time, all that kind of stuff.”
For the first time ever, players will be able to challenge ball and strike calls during the regular season. Each team will begin the game with two challenges and lose them only if they fail in a challenge. Players tap the top of their helmet or caps when they want to challenge a call.
The Padres have spent time talking about the strategy they will employ. And spring training games, which begin Friday, bring an opportunity for more testing.
“When we’ve got our regulars playing,” Stammen said, “we want them to use it and get used to it.”
That will also give the staff a chance to see which batters are prescient about employing challenges.
“We’ve got to be smart when we use them,” Stammen said. “Those will be strategies we kind of come up with as we go through spring training and see how it works — see who’s good at it, see who’s not good at it. There could be some revoking of people’s challenge opportunities.”
Most teams have indicated pitchers will not be allowed to challenge ball-strike calls. As a former pitcher, Stammen has first-hand experience with why that is.
“Pitchers are … highly emotional while pitching, and they’re also the farthest away from the strike zone,” he said. “So as much as they think they’ve got a clear view, they’re doing whatever they can mechanically to throw 95 mph, and they still think they can pinpoint where that fastball or curveball ends up. I know personally (when) I was complaining about an umpire internally, about him missing a call, when I went back and looked at it after the game, it was about 95% of the time a ball. So just knowing that personally, the pitchers will have limited opportunities to challenge.”
Ethan Salas #90 of the San Diego Padres participates in drills during spring training workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026 in Peoria, Ariz. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Taking time with Salas
Ethan Salas has been full-go in his third big-league camp, working in with the team’s other catchers in drills and catching bullpens.
But Stammen said the Padres’ top prospect’s playing time in games will not be as great as that of fellow minor-leaguers Rodolfo Durán and Blake Hunt.
That is due in part to the fact that they want to see the other two catchers. There are some in the organization who think Durán could give Luis Campusano a run in the competition to be Freddy Fermin’s backup.
Also, though, the Padres plan to slow-play the 19-year-old Salas’ load as he works back after he missed most of last season with a stress reaction in his lower back.