Rockies right-hander landed on the 15-day injured list last month due to elbow inflammation. Manager Bud Black tells Filip Hronek Jersey Manny Randhawa of MLB.com that Mrquez wont be able to make it back to the mound this year. As Randhawa relayed , the rightys ulnar collateral ligament is fine but he has a stre s reaction in his elbow and wont be able to throw for six to eight weeks. Since theres just over seven weeks remaining in the regular season, he wont be coming back this year. 2024 will ultimately go down as a mostly lost season for the righty. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year and was able to come off the injured list in July. He made just one start, allowing three earned runs in four innings, before going back on the IL. Todays news is somewhat positive in the sense that the rightys UCL is not affected and he can have a normal offseason in preparation for 2025. But its also le s than ideal for him to be going into next year with just four innings thrown this year. Ideally, he would have had the last couple of months of the schedule to compile a decent workload to build off next year, but that wont be po sible now. The Colorado rotation has been an i sue this year, to put it mildly. The clubs starters have a collective 5.45 earned run average, worst in the majors. Thats not nece sarily a surprise, between the usual challenges of pitching at Coors Field and the injury i sues the club has had. In addition to Mrquez, has also mi sed the entire season thus far due to his own Tommy John surgery recovery. Hes tonight. also mi sed a couple of months due to an elbow strain and has only made 12 starts this year. With Mrquez unable to come back this year, the group is unlikely to get back on track anytime soon. Just today, another domino fell as was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right shoulder strain, though its not yet known exactly how much time the club is expecting him to mi s. Its theoretically po sible to imagine the group being in better shape next year with with full and healthy seasons from Mrquez, Senzatela and Freeland. The Rockies signed all three of those pitchers to extensions as they envisioned that trio as their rotation core. Mrquez was in the final season of his deal last year when he went under the knife, but he and the club subsequently reunited on a second extension that goes through 2025. The extended absence from Mrquez complicates things somewhat. He only to sed 20 innings last year, meaning hell be going into 2025 with just 24 innings thrown in the previous two seasons. That could lead to tricky questions about how to handle his workload next year. He did to s 975 1/3 innings from 2017 to 2022 with a 4.38 ERA, to sing between 162 and 196 innings in each full season of that stretch as well as 81 2/3 frames in the shortened 2020 campaign, but its fair to wonder if his elbow will allow him to simply jump back to that level. There are other questions to be answered as well. As mentioned, Senzatela will be rehabbing and could get some major league starts under his belt before the season ends. Freeland has been off the IL for about six weeks now and seems healthy apart from a blister hes been dealing with lately, but he could finish with an ERA above 5.00 for the second straight season. Though to be fair, his .348 BABIP and 62.4% strand rate might be clouding things this year. His 4.13 FIP and 4.24 SIERA suggest a sunnier outlook. figures to be in the mix since he has one more arbitration season left and wasnt traded prior to the deadline. He has a 4.56 ERA over his 23 starts this year. Feltner is having a decent season and will be part of the calculus as well, as long as this shoulder injury doesnt linger into next year. His even 5.00 ERA doesnt look great but his .321 BABIP and and 62.9% strand rate are both on the unlucky side. His 20.1% strikeout rate is a bit low but his 7.3% walk rate and 45.4% ground ball rate are both solid, which is why he has a 4.30 FIP and 4.26 SIERA. , like Quantrill, can be retained for one more arbitration season and is having decent campaign with a 4.66 ERA in 21 starts. Though this year has been rough, the club arguably has six decent starters on hand for its 2025 rotation between Mrquez, Senzatela, Freeland, Quantrill, Gomber and Feltner. Baseball rarely allows clubs to follow a script, however, and the picture will undoubtedly change between now and then. The latest on Mrquez already puts a bit of a wrench in their plans, though ideally things will progre s well after his upcoming shutdown period. Max Sasson Jersey