The Pittsburgh Pirates have many intriguing arbitration cases slated for 2017. Here’s what to expect.
As Major League Baseball approaches its arbitration non-tender deadline on December 2nd, we examine the Pittsburgh Pirates’ eight arbitration eligible players on the roster to determine what we expect will happen, based on their individual performance and their projected salaries, per MLB Trade Rumors. We’ll start with the highest projected salary and work our way down.
NOTE: As you traverse this post, please feel free to refer to the special sections on the right. There you will find our posts on a particular player or players from the previous season.
LHP Tony Watson (5.101 years of service time), projected $5.9 million: Watson enters his final arbitration season looking to re-gain the form he had during his pre-arb year in 2014, which was also his peak production year. Since that time, most of his critical numbers have progressively gotten worse, including his ERA, FIP, walk rate, home runs allowed per nine innings (HR/9) and his left on base percentage (LOB%).
During that same span, Watson also leads all qualified National League relievers in innings pitched since 2012 with 345.1, a nod to his durability. He is also 10th in ERA (2.40), 11th in fWAR (3.8), and 15th in LOB% (81.7), putting him among or near the top tenth percentile of 125 eligible relievers in each of those categories. Considering his projected salary would rank 19th among MLB relievers, it seems like one the Pirates won’t disagree with; perhaps they might even consider it a discount.
But after that comes the difficult question: does he remain the closer, does he move back to a setup role, or does another team make that decision? Seattle beat writer Bob Dutton has reported Watson is “believed to be available” on the trade market, and a manageable salary like his as he approaches his final season before free agency could make him an attractive piece.
RHP Juan Nicasio (5.084 years), projected $4.6 million: This past season could easily be broken up into the two subsets of Nicasio as a starter and as a reliever, but a much more intriguing split might be the first and second halves of the season. After the All-Star break Nicasio’s ERA was 3.05 with 63 strikeouts and only 12 walks in 44.1 innings, as opposed to a 5.38 ERA beforehand (partially made worse by the 12 games he started between April and June).
Not only did Nicasio fare much better as a reliever in the second half, he carved out a niche as a viable multiple-inning option. In 14 of his 32 second-half appearances, he pitched at least one inning, 28.2 altogether. In that time, he recorded a 2.19 ERA, struck out 42 batters, walked only 6 and allowed only one homerun. (He allowed 11 in 12 appearances as a starter.) With the heightened emphasis on flexible, multiple-inning relievers during this past postseason, Nicasio is a virtual no-brainer at that cost in that role and could be a possible trade-deadline piece as he nears free agency.
Next, we look at two sides of the starting pitching coin.
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