Major League Baseball

Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Relievers That Still Could be Traded

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 12:16 a.m. ET

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Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports

The Winter Meetings have come and gone, but the rumors have not.  The Pittsburgh Pirates were not very active at the meetings in terms of making deals.  However, there is still plenty of time for moves to happen.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking to improve their roster for the 2016 season.  Typically, when a team looks to do this they try to bring in players in addition to what they already have on their team.  However, the Pittsburgh Pirates operate differently.  Most of the time the Pirates do not add without subtracting.  We can sit here are argue all day, but the Pittsburgh Pirates operate in a certain manner.  They do not like to significantly increase payroll without first cutting some payroll.  They also do not like to simply lose players to free agency, especially impact players.

The Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington has stated numerous times that they will always consider trading players who are in the last year or two years in terms of control.  Hence, why they are listening on Andrew McCutchen.  We saw this last year when the Pittsburgh Pirates dealt away second baseman Neil Walker to the Mets, Travis Snider to the Orioles in the 2014-15 off-season, and Joel Hanrahan before that in 2012.

One thing that the Pirates try to do when making these types of deals is to acquire controllable assets.  That can be prospects like in the Snider trade, where they acquired Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley.  However, they also have been able to acquire major league players with control.  They did so when they dealt away Joel Hanrahan for Mark Melancon and others.  They also did this last off-season when they acquired Jon Niese, who if not for having an atrocious season would be here in Pittsburgh still with having his 2017 club option picked up.

With this all being said, the Pittsburgh Pirates have several players they could yet to look to trade.  many reports are that the Pirates put out and took a lot of phone calls on a lot of the expiring veterans.  We all know Andrew McCutchen is one.  However, who are some of the other player who could be dealt, and what teams could be interested?

Tony Watson

Tony Watson is the most obvious player who could be dealt.  Watson finds himself coming off what would be considered a down season by his standards.  However, over the course of his career, many view the left-handed pitcher as one the best set-up pitchers in the league.  Most of Watson’s struggles came this season in two specific months.

The first one was June when he saw himself give up seven earned runs in 11.1 innings pitched. He also ended the season on a bad note by giving up six earned runs in 10.2 innings pitched in the month of September. Outside of those two months however, Watson pitched fairly well.  In April he threw to an average earned run average of 3.55, in May he did not concede an earned run, in July he posted an excellent 0.79 ERA, and he followed that up with a strong 2.84 ERA in August.

One thing that really hurt Watson this past year was a dip in his velocity and swing and miss rate.  This was a red flag to many fans as they felt his stuff was starting to diminish.  However, when taking a closer look, Watson was fairly good for most of the season.  His numbers were inflated mainly because of two really bad months.  He ended the year with a 3.06 ERA in 67.2 innings.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Why Trade Him?

On of the other main concerns is that Watson blew five seasons in the year.  Many thought that Watson would be the closer after Melancon had moved on.  However, Watson seemed to be out of sorts when pitching in the ninth innings compared to the eighth. For some reason some pitchers just are not mentally able to closer out games.

With Watson soon getting an arbitration raise close to six million dollars, the Bucs may not feel the need to keep him.  Watson is one of five current lefties in the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen.  Of the group he had the best track record, but also is owed the most money.  Also, this is his last year of team control. Now six million dollars is very doable for the Pirates.

However, with plenty of teams looking for relief pitching, especially left-handed relief pitching he would have a fair amount of suitors.  Teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, Nationals and Blue Jays are all looking for left-handed relief help or a set-up pitcher.  The Pirates have reportedly put out to opposing teams that they are willing to listen on Watson.  This is typical and the Pittsburgh Pirates may get an offer that is worth moving Tony Watson, his rising cost, and his expiring contract.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Antonio Bastardo

As mentioned on the last slide the Pittsburgh Pirates currently have a lot of left-handed relief options in their bullpen.  One of those is Antonio Bastardo who is entering the final year of his two-year contract.  Bastardo was a Pittsburgh Pirate in 2015 and had a lot of success in Pittsburgh.  He then signed a contract with the New York Mets in the 2015 off-season for two years.  The Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Bastardo when they traded struggling starter Jon Niese back to the Mets.  Bastardo had also struggled and the swap seemed logical to get the players back where they had success.

Bastardo was better in his last few months of the season with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but still not great.  In his 24 appearances with the Bucs he threw to a 4.14 earned run average, a 2.55 strikeout to walk ratio, and a 1.25 WHIP.  Not great numbers but much improved compared to his 4.74 ERA, 2.17 K/BB ratio, and 1.42 WHIP with the New York Mets. All around Bastardo is a hard throwing left-handed pitcher who in his career has been better against lefties than righties.  However, this past season he actually gave up a .253 batting average against left-handed hitters while holding right-handed hitters to a lesser average.  He had quite an odd year, which could make him a question mark for the Pirates next season.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Reports

Bastardo is due to make 6.25 million dollars this season.  According to reports at last year’s trade deadline the Mets were sending money in the trade for the 2017 season.  There is no confirmation on that or how much they would be sending.  With that it was reported during the Winter Meetings that Bill Brink reported that:

The Pittsburgh Pirates would likely get more in a trade if they dealt Tony Watson.  Still, there is always teams looking for significant lefty bullpen help and Bastardo would represent that. He is considered a much better option than most, and with him coming at a discounted rate should be quite enticing to inquiring teams.  One can also argue that with his career track record he would be a bargain at less than six million dollars a season.

We just saw solid, but not great lefty reliever Brett Cecil get over seven million dollars per year in free agency.  Another pitcher, Marc Rzepczynski, signed with the Mariners for 5.5 million per season over the next two years.  This lefty has a career 3.80 earned run average, although is coming off a solid year of a sub three ERA in 2016.  My point is lefty relievers, who have been just as effective as Bastardo are making more money than he would by the Mets and Pirates chipping in to reduce his salary.

Juan Nicasio

Juan Nicasio was brought in last year on a one year 3.9 million dollar deal.  He earned that after converting to the bullpen with the Dodgers in 2015.  When the Bucs brought him in the intent was to use him as a multi-inning reliever for the 2016 season.  Because of that they wanted to stretch out Nicasio in spring training to build up his arm.  In Spring Training Nicasio impressed in his extended appearances and earned himself a spot in the opening day rotation.  Nicasio impressed right away when he threw six innings, giving up one run, and striking out seven.  This got fans really excited as he seemed to carry his success from Spring to the regular season.  It was especially exciting to see him do it against the division rival St. Louis Cardinals.

Nicasio remained in the Pittsburgh Pirates rotation for 12 starts.  He did not have much success there.  His earned run average was over five as a starter, and eventually he was put into the bullpen as was originally planned.  Nicasio found a lot more success there.  In fact, he had at least one strikeout in 31 straight appearances, a Pirate record, and the most in the majors since Chapman did it 37 times in 2014.  Nicasio transitioned from starter to multi-inning reliever, and helped turn his season around.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Entering the 2017 Season

Entering the season it seems Nicasio will be in a different role.  With now clear cut closer for the Pirates, Nicasio could find himself used in higher leverage innings, like the 7th,8th, or 9th inning of games the Bucs are leading.  He should be able to handle this.  According to fangraphs, Nicasio’s pitched best in high leverage situations during the 2016 season.  Fangraphs shows that Nicasio faced 32 batters in high leverage situations and held opponents to a .194 batting average, and .214 on-base percentage, and struck out 12 batters while only walking one.  Nicasio should be moved from the long relief role and moved into a more high leverage situation role if he is kept.

Entering this season Nicasio is up for his final year of arbitration.  Nicasio is up for a modest raise, according to MLBTR he is projected to received 4.6 million dollars.  That is lower than Tony Watson and Antonio Bastardo’s contract.  With that, he still is in his final year and could be dealt if the Pirates receive an intriguing offer.

Who are teams that could be interested in the hard throwing reliever?  First is the Dodgers.  The Dodgers converted Nicasio to a reliever where he found the best success of his career, the Dodgers saw it and would be intrigued to bring him back.  The Detroit Tigers found most of their struggles in their bullpen last season.  Nicasio would be an immediate upgrade over their current options.  Detorit seems to be still in win now mode, and has consistently seen their bullpen ranked in the bottom five over the last few years.  Obviously, other teams that in general  are looking for bullpen help are the Yankees, Marlins, Nationals, Toronto, and Atlanta.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

In Conclusion

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Although none of the relief pitchers are overly pricey they still could help free up money for other moves.  The Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington has said numerous times that they will always be open to moving players in the last year of their contractual control.  Does that mean they are shopping them? No, not necessarily.  However, if a team calls and makes a significant offer they Bucs will consider it.

If the Pittsburgh Pirates can get upside controllable players for a player on expiring contract while getting some salary relief they will do it.  We saw this with Mark Melancon last trade deadline, and a similar approach with Andrew McCutchen so far this off-season.  However, the return has to be what they are looking for not what the inquiring team might be.  We saw this when the Pirates got Felipe Rivero.  The Bucs wanted a young, projectable reliever in return and they got one.

The Pittsburgh Pirates do not need to move any of these players.  However, it seems more than likely they will as that is how they typically operate.  If the Bucs did decide to move one, Watson would get the best return.  He is a bona fide set-up man, and one of the best lefty relievers in the game. Watson would likely acquire a MLB player plus a solid prospect, similar to what Melancon brought back.  I doubt he would get a player with as much contractual control as Rivero.   The other two will not be as coveted as much, but still could be moved to help fill a bench hole or mid-level prospect or two.  Expect on these arms to be on the move sooner rather than later.

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