German Marquez, Colorado Rockies
The up-and-down year from Jon Gray and Cy Young-worthy performance from Kyle Freeland made it easy to overlook what German Marquez did. His innings pitched (196), fWAR (4.5), and strikeout rate (28.2%) all improved for the second consecutive year, and he can thank an incredible second half for that.
Heading into the All-Star Break, Marquez owned a 4.81 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. Those numbers improved dramatically to 2.61, 33.9%, and 5.5%, respectively over his final 93 frames. It’s even gotten him recognition as a sleeper Cy Young candidate for the upcoming year.
Marquez’s slider saw a tremendous improvement, as well. After it was his least-used pitch in 2017 and yielded a 247 wRC+ and 6.3% strikeout rate, it was his third-most used pitch of 2018, producing a 17 wRC+ and 40.4% strikeout rate.
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