© Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
A day after reporting that the San Francisco Giants were in “serious contract talks” with relief pitcher Tony Watson, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale followed up on his report with Gary & Larry on Wednesday afternoon.
The #SFGiants are involved in serious contract talks with prized free agent reliever Tony Watson for the back end of their bulllen.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) February 13, 2018
“The Giants want him very badly,” Nightengale said. “If you’re a pitcher, you can put up big-time numbers in a place like AT&T and in the National League West, where the Cy Young winners come from and everything else. Big ballparks.”
Although Watson is fresh off a dominating performance in last year’s playoffs with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the 32-year-old left-hander is three years removed from the best seasons of his career.
Two years after debuting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011, Watson averaged a 1.97 ERA and made roughly 74 appearances each season from 2013-2015. In 2014, Watson received his only All-Star nomination and finished the season 10-2 with a career-low 1.63 ERA in 77.1 innings pitched. The following year, his ERA was 1.91 and he went 4-1 in 75.1 games.
However, Watson’s ERA gradually increased over his final three seasons in Pittsburgh. His ERA spiked to 3.06 in 2016 and was 3.66 before being traded to the Dodgers last July.
After appearing in 20 innings for the Dodgers during the regular season, Watson pitched seven innings in Los Angeles’ playoff run, which included two wins and 3.2 innings pitched in the World Series.
“If he wants to re-establish his value that might be the place to go,” Nightengale said. “He could sign a two or three-year deal with an opt out after one year and hit the market again.”
Yet, the Giants made an effort to not only improve this offseason, but remain under the luxury-tax threshold. At this point, they’re roughly $6 million shy of the $197 million mark and any other signing; especially Watson, who is the top relief pitcher on the free agent market, would likely bump them over the threshold.
Nonetheless, Nightengale believes the Giants would be willing to go over the tax to bring a reliever, including Watson, to San Francisco.
“It’s amazing he’s still out there,” Nightengale said. “I’m sure the price tag, what he wanted was probably too high at the outset, but he’s usually the best lefty out there and he’d be great insurance to Mark Melancon since he’s got so much experience as a closer.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and start from the beginning for Nightengale on the Giants.