According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, the Pirates and Tony Watson have agreed to terms on a one-year, $3.45 million deal for the 2016 season, avoiding arbitration.
Tony Watson is coming off an absolutely dominant 2015 season. He went 4-1 with a 1.91ERA/2.84FIP. That was Watson’s second consecutive season with an ERA under two and a FIP under three. Watson has been one of the elite relievers in the entire game of baseball since the start of the 2013 season and has almost always calmly took the ball and done his job.
Watson was projected to get $4.6 million in arbitration according to MLB Trade Rumors, so this deals saves the Pirates $1.15 million, which is surprising given how dominant Watson has been the previous two seasons. It should be noted that, historically, the arbitration board has not overly valued non-closer relief pitchers. So it’s likely that Watson’s management took the first fair deal to avoid having to go through the entire tedious process.
With the Watson deal done, the only remaining arbitration eligible player to not have an announced deal is his partner at the back-end of the bullpen, Mark Melancon. MLBTR projects Melancon to earn $10 million in arbitration. Melancon has been rumored to be on the trade block at several points during this off-season, which would most likely give Watson the closer’s job if he gets dealt. No trade appears imminent, so unless the Pirates get a deal done with Melancon before the 1PM deadline, he likely will reach the arbitrators table prior to the start of spring training.
Make sure to keep up with all of the Pirates’ arbitration news over at our 2016 arbitration tracker.
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