Pirates Analysis: Could Tony Watson be on shopping list as teams make pitches for closers?
The Pirates finished Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings near Washington, D.C., making just one minor move, selecting left-handed pitcher Tyler Webb from the New York Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft Thursday morning.
Webb, 26, has been used mostly as a reliever in his four-year professional career and had a 2.65 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP when used in that role with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in 2016.
While Webb could be asset in the Pirates’ bullpen, the position the team’s front office set out to upgrade when it left for the meetings was the starting rotation, and that unit remains untouched after four days.
The Pirates had been in negotiations with several teams, including the Washington Nationals, to trade All-Star centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, but those talks fell through, with the Nationals electing to trade for Chicago White Sox outfielder Adam Eaton on Wednesday instead. With the Nationals no longer in the bidding, talks have subsided in regards to McCutchen.
Around the rest of the league, closers are suddenly the hot commodity, with the New York Yankees bringing in former Chicago Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman on an $86-million dollar deal late Wednesday, according toMLB.com. The bidding is also heating up on Los Angeles Dodgers’ ninth-inning man Kenley Jansen.
With trade talks for McCutchen seemingly on hold and the market for relievers picking up, it’s possible that the Pirates will offer closer Tony Watson instead in their search for starting pitching. Watson is currently eligible for arbitration and is slated to become a free agent after the 2017 season.
The addition of Webb gives the Pirates five left-handed relief pitchers, with Webb and Watson joined by Antonio Bastardo, Wade LeBlanc and Felipe Rivero. Even though Bastardo and Rivero had reverse platoon splits last year — meaning they pitched better against right-handers than left-handers — that’s an awful lot of lefties for one bullpen.
Watson’s brief stint as a closer after the trade of Mark Melancon at the trade deadline may have shown enough that another team sees him as a potential ninth-inning solution. If that’s the case, with the prices for relievers on the open market continuing to rise, the Pirates may be able to get the starter they desire in exchange for him.
Trading their closer a scenario the Pirates are pretty familiar with under general manager Neal Huntington. They swapped Joel Hanrahan for Melancon and three prospects in 2012. Jason Grilli was sent to the Anaheim Angels for Ernesto Frieri in 2014 and Melancon was dealt to the Nationals for Rivero and pitching prospect Taylor Hearn in July.
The Pirates have next to no closing experience beyond Watson on the roster, with Bastardo’s 12 career saves leading the way. But a familiar paradigm, a potential bidding war and a big need could be all that Huntington needs to pull the trigger on such a deal.