Watson joins long list of former Pirates
Tony Watson departed the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers just before the 2017 MLB trade deadline.
Once referred to as the former Pirates closer after losing that role to Felipe Rivero, Watson can now join a long list of former Pirates. Relief pitchers have especially been interchangeable parts to general manager Neal Huntington, whose bullpen can see considerable changes year-to-year.
To a degree, that is true for all bullpens across Major League Baseball, which is all the more reason that Watson stands as a unique case. For one, he was drafted and developed entirely in the Pirates system, something that recent fan favorites Mark Melancon, Jason Grilli and RIvero himself cannot claim.
Drafted in the ninth round of the 2007 MLB draft out of the University of Nebraska, Watson’s value to the Pirates can sometimes get lost among his recent foibles. Today we will devote Bucs by Numbers to measuring Watson’s contributions.
First, Watson’s usage practically leaps off the page. The left-hander has never missed significant time due to injury, totaling at least 65 innings in each of his five full seasons in the majors. The three-year stretch encompassing 2013 through 2015 saw him make 222 appearances, or 12.1 percent greater than his closest competitor.
Over that same trifecta of seasons, Watson posted a 2.91 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) rate, with 7.9 K/9 against just 1.8 BB/9. He kept the ball in the park at 0.5 per nine, and was stingy overall with just a 0.96 WHIP (walks and hits divided by innings pitched).
That is a heck of a dominant stretch, made even more dominant by the fact that Watson did it purely on the back of a sinker-changeup-slider combination. Relievers by design have lighter repertoires than their starter brethren, but in an era of super relievers setting up their filth with a hot fastball, Watson never emphasized the straight heat all that much.
He got by on deception, and for a wonderful stretch, he was as deceptive as they come. That deception often leaves relief pitchers as the “book” gets written on them, but Watson was able to hold onto just enough of it to keep his dominance.
The wheels started to fall off in 2016 before nearly completely derailing in the current year, but Watson’s time with the Pirates on the whole should be looked at as nothing more than a pure stretch of exceptional relief pitching.
The cycle is set to continue all over again with Felipe Rivero.
Much like Watson, the young fireballer simply takes the ball and does his job.