How could the Pirates replace Tony Watson?

The Pirates seem to be shopping elite reliever Tony Watson this off-season. If he does indeed get moved, how would the team go about replacing him?

The Pirates seem to be headed towards an interesting winter that could involve a lot of moving pieces. Now, there are multiple signs pointing towards the Pirates putting closer Tony Watson‘s name on the trading block. First, in an article for The News Tribune, Bob Dutton writes that the Mariners could, or should be keeping an eye on the Pirates’ star reliever:

“The trade market is still developing,” Dutton writes, “but one name to watch is Pittsburgh lefty Tony Watson, who is believed to be available.”

This makes sense, as Watson has just one year left of arbitration eligibility, and the Pirates likely won’t re-sign him.

Neal Huntington added some comments of his own to add fuel to the fire that Watson could be moved, despite the fact that no one has officially put Watson’s out there:

GM Neal Huntington: "The reality of expiring contracts — whether it's one year out or two years out — we have to be cognizant of that."

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) November 22, 2016

Now, this comment could be directed at Andrew McCutchen, but I also think it’s relevant with Tony Watson. This is smart business from a small market team, and Watson’s name should at least be put out there so the team can see what kind of return they could get from him.

If the Pirates do choose to move on from Watson, how do they replace him? And how does the rest of the bullpen shake out?

Immediately Felipe Rivero jumps into the closer’s role. Going into next season, there was at least going to be debate as to who should close, Watson or Rivero. But Rivero has the better natural stuff to be a closer, and is probably the future in that role for the Pirates anyways.

The other option for closer in this scenario would be for the Pirates to ramp up their efforts to re-sign Neftali Feliz. At the moment, that seems unlikely. But if they shed Watson’s likely $4+ million salary, and if other salary gets moved elsewhere, maybe they sign Feliz to a two or three-year deal. We’ve seen small market teams do it before, as the A’s did with Ryan Madson. And we just saw the Pirates bring back Antonio Bastardo in a trade with the Mets, adopting the remainder of his two-year, $12 million contract. Feliz may get more than this, but his return if Watson gets moved is not out of the question.

Speaking of Bastardo, I think he’ll move into the eighth inning position. He’s the Pirates next-best reliever after Watson and Rivero, and he had great success with the Pirates in 2015. He didn’t have the eighth inning role in that 2015 campaign, and it’d be interesting to see how he would adjust to that role, but it’d be worth a shot.

Juan Nicasio is more of a long relief arm and spot starter, but he’d be in the conversation as well. He had sub-three ERAs in July, August, and September once he was moved to a bullpen role. Him and Bastardo will battle it out for the seventh and eighth inning spots, but it will almost certainly be those two and Rivero occupying the back-end should Watson get moved, unless an external addition is brought in.

And count out Tyler Glasnow, who is being looked at more as a future starter than a bullpen arm.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Tony Watson is traded this winter. If he is, we know that Huntington has been able to craft quality bullpens in the past without big names or known commodities. I don’t think it’d be any different next season.

Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography

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