Dodgers News: Tony Watson trade is the best small trade of the deadline

Before announcing that the team had acquired Yu Darvish, the first splash of Dodgers news during the deadline was the team acquiring Tony Watson.

The biggest Dodgers news during the MLB Trade Deadline is undoubtedly the deal that landed the Dodgers right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish. However, before the blockbuster deal occurred at the deadline the Dodgers pulled the strings on a deal of lesser impact. The team fulfilled their left-handed bullpen need with Tony Watson.

Los Angeles sent prospects Angel German and Oniel Cruz to Pittsburgh in exchange for Watson. This was a tremendously low asking price, as Oniel slots in as the Pirates 16th best prospect and German fails to make the list. Los Angeles essentially received a bullpen arm for a nickel and dime.

Some Dodgers fans still ridicule this move. Watson has struggled this season against left-handed pitching. Opposing left-handed batters are batting .308 against Watson, scoring ten runs in 65 at-bats. This is not the most impressive platoon split by any stretch of the imagination, it is perfectly reasonable for Dodger fans to be concerned.

However, those statistics do nothing to judge the kind of pitcher that Watson is, as in his career fellow left-handers are only batting .217 against him. Yes, this year has been a bad year for Watson, but joining LA will spark that production that has led his career platoon to stand at .217.

Many fail to take into consideration that Watson has one of the worst defenses in the league behind him in Pittsburgh. The Pirates own the 21st best UZR in baseball, an advanced sabermetric used by FanGraphs that essentially calculates the defensive value of a player (in this case, team).

The Pirates UZR comes in at -7.1, which according to FanGraphs metrics is rated as below average to poor. On the other hand, the Dodgers rank ninth in the MLB with an 11.1 UZR, regarded as great on the same scale.

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Not only will Watson be heading to a better defense in Los Angeles, he is coming to a great system and a great pitchers ball park. Granted, the system that Ray Searage has in Pittsburgh is great and PNC Park statistically favors pitchers, Rick Honeycutt’s system is the best in baseball and Dodger Stadium has that moist marine layer.

Not to mention that Watson has absolutely thrived in Dodger Stadium and against the rest of the NL West. Granted, it is facing the Dodgers, but Watson’s career ERA at Dodger Stadium is sitting nicely at 1.86; his ERA against the rest of the West is 2.58.

With Honeycutt’s great system in place and the way Dave Roberts methodically uses pitchers there is no reason why the Dodgers cannot get the most out of Watson. Sure, he won’t be a world beater, but he will be a more than a good addition to this bullpen.

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Overall, the Dodgers news surrounding Tony Watson is nothing but positivity. And hey, even if he doesn’t quite pan out, the team did not pay much for him anyway.