Pirates deal Tony Watson to Dodgers for prospects, acquire Joaquin Benoit from Phillies
Not exactly buyers, but not quite sellers, either. Again.
For the second consecutive MLB nonwaiver trade deadline, the Pirates split the difference between flipping veterans for prospects and mortgaging a future piece to win now. The net of their two moves Monday for the major league team was swapping veteran setup men on expiring contracts.
For their minor league system, two marginal prospects from Low Class A were added, but one from High Class A was subtracted.
“Obviously, we approached the trade deadline with a similar mindset as we did a year ago,” general manager Neal Huntington said. “We wanted to respect the positive signs from the 2017 club. … But we also needed to be realistic.”
Coming off a 3-6 roadtrip that followed a stretch of winning 12 of 14, the Pirates are 51-54 but only 5½ games out of the lead in the National League Central.
So the Pirates made one buy and one sell. They traded veteran left-handed reliever Tony Watson to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and acquired reliever Joaquín Benoit from the Philadelphia Phillies.
Watson, a 32-year-old who spent 10 months as the Pirates' closer, was dealt for infielder Oneil Cruz and right-handed pitcher Angel German. The Pirates sent righty Seth McGarry to Philadelphia and also obtained cash from the Phillies in the Benoit deal.
A 16-year veteran, Benoit has a 4.07 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 42 innings with a 1.14 WHIP while making $7.5 million this season.
“We were able to acquire two young prospects we think highly of,” Huntington said. “And we also acquired a veteran reliever who's pitched in high-leverage roles in past that has relatively (left/right) neutral splits that will give (manager) Clint Hurdle an option as we continue to push this forward for this year — and the young prospects help us push this organization forward in the big picture.”
Cruz was ranked as the 23rd-best prospect in the Dodgers organization by Baseball America, and German was not ranked. Both are natives of the Dominican Republic.
The 6-foot-6 Cruz, in theory, has power potential. German is having the best of his five minor-league seasons (1.91 ERA, .190 opponent average and 1.09 WHIP with 37 strikeouts in 33 innings) but has a career ERA of 5.10.
An eighth-round pick in 2015, McGarry is not among the Pirates' top prospects but is having a good season (1.34 ERA, 0.84 WHIP) as a reliever for High-A Bradenton.
“We had other expiring contracts that if we wanted to, we could have moved other players,” Huntington said. “(But) the returns were not compelling. The Watson return was compelling.”
Benoit allowed two runs on six hits and a walk in 8 1⁄3 innings over his past eight appearances. He throws two- and four-seam fastballs, a changeup and a slider. Left-handed hitters have a .214 average against him this season. Righties are batting .197. The Pirates will be Benoit's eighth team, his fourth over the past two seasons.
Watson has a 2.68 career ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 450 career games. His 407 appearances since the start of 2012 are the most among MLB lefties, but his 1.52 WHIP this season is the worst of his career and his ERA is the worst since he was a rookie.
Watson became the Pirates closer Aug. 1 of last year when the Pirates traded Mark Melancon, but he was stripped of the role in early June after blown saves on consecutive days.
Watson, though, had seemed to settle in upon returning to his familiar set-up role. He had allowed only three earned runs in 15 2⁄3 innings with no home runs allowed since June 20.
Watson is making $5.6 million this season and earlier this year switched agents to Scott Boras as he approaches free agency.
“We cannot express enough appreciation to Tony Watson as a man, as well as the pitcher, for everything he's done and the stable force he's been in the back end of the bullpen long time,” Huntington said.
Last season as the deadline approached, the Pirates made four moves — subtracting Melancon, Francisco Liriano and four prospects but adding Ivan Nova, Felipe Rivero and a prospect.
Rob Biertempfel and Jerry DiPaola contributed. Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.
