Pittsburgh Pirates: Three Relievers That Still Could be Traded

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 month 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 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.