Giants reliever Tony Watson triggered many of the available escalators in his contract last year, MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports (Twitter link), allowing him to add $3MM in earnings to what had been a $3.5MM guaranteed salary for the 2019 season. In addition to his now-$6.5MM salary this year, the southpaw can also trigger quite a few incentives by continuing to rack up appearances.
Watson and his reps were forced to get creative when his market didn’t quite develop as hoped last winter. He ended up joining the San Francisco organization in late February. The contract softened the luxury-tax hit for the club with a lower-than-anticipated annual guarantee, but also came with upside for the player.
The deal promised Watson $9MM, a figure that covered two full seasons as well as a $2.5MM player option for the 2020 campaign. That option still protects his downside in the event of an injury or performance slide. Watson will surely hope his market value well outstrips it come this fall; in that case, he’ll instead take a $500K buyout.
On the incentive side, the contract was known to have included $2.5MM in games-finished bonuses. That was never particularly likely to come into play and indeed has not. As Adams explains, though, it also included provisions allowing for substantial earnings for being called upon to pitch.
Watson’s 66-frame 2018 showing allowed him to boost his 2019 salary to $6.5MM. He can add to that with incentive pay this year: $500K apiece upon reaching his 25th, 30th, 35th, 40th, 45th, and 50th games pitched. He’ll earn another $1MM if he can reach 55 games. There are similar numbers available for 2020, though it seems unlikely they’ll be brought into play.
Add it all up, and Watson’s 2019 incentive package maxes out at $4MM — meaning he could end the present season with $10.5MM in total compensation. And it’s all quite achievable so long as he stays healthy.
These contract details are obviously relevant for player and team, but they’re also notable from the perspective of potential trade suitors. There’ll be a fair bit of salary to account for if Watson is dealt this summer. It’s certainly not hard to imagine a scenario where Watson does indeed end up on the block this July. He’s a 2.66 ERA hurler through 523 2/3 MLB innings and hasn’t finished a complete season with an ERA north of 3.38 with the exception of his debut campaign.
Last year, Watson rung up more than a batter per inning via strikeout while walking less than two per nine. That enabled him to carry a shiny 2.59 ERA over 66 frames and represented a reversal of some worrying peripheral trends from the prior two seasons. In the early going in 2019, the 33-year-old has shown a velocity decline (over two ticks below his career average) and managed only a single strikeout in 4 2/3 outings. But he’s also generating swinging strikes at a whopping 19.3% rate. He also hasn’t handed out a walk and has permitted just one earned run.
He should get a bonus for being the best looking player on the team! I’m a woman btw (not that it should matter!). Great pitcher. The Giants have few pitching issues this year. Batting? That’s a mess!
They aren’t going to get anything for him at the trade deadline with that salary. Unless they are giving the other team money.
I think the Dodgers and Giants could actually make a trade with Watson down the road
Especially with Farhan running the Giants, id agree. He operates with brain, not emotion.
Coletti 2.0
Lol ignant
That’s a perfectly reasonable salary for a quality middle reliever now. In terms of fWAR for last season and the past couple seasons the closest reliever to Watson who was a free agent this past offseason was Adam Ottavino who just signed for 27 million over 3 years.
“They aren’t going to get anything for him…with that salary.
I completely disagree. Most teams don’t mind paying premium salaries for premium performances. That’s the beauty of incentives. If the guy stinks he doesn’t cost that much. And if they are on the hook for more salary, it’s because the guy performed.
I thought Crawford was the best looking player on the team, no?
My vote would go to Posey.
Actually, I take that back. Trevor Gott is a good looking fellow.
Why didn’t Steve Adams just write this up himself? :)
I don’t speak for Steve so this might not be the reason, but it might be sort of awkward to write “according to what I reported” or something along those lines, or maybe he just has other stuff going on at the moment
Yeah he had the info but was otherwise done working for the day, so I wrote it up. That’s all!
Because he’s lazy and/or realizes I’m the best. But don’t tell him I said that.
Trade Bait. !
Good for Watson,I presume.He was a very fine 8 th inning pitcher for the Pirates,and a good guy too.He and Melancon formed quite a team for several years.Alas,when his time came to close he was not quite up to the task.
I presume that these incentives when met add to the total team $ for luxury tax calculation purposes.
I now understand why it seemed like he was clearly underpaid as meeting these clauses enables him to take home a healthy salary.
Who cares,it’s April,let’s talk in June
Did MLBTR cover the MadBum and Philly rumor? I can’t seem to see it.
“According to MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi, Philadelphia has been doing due diligence on Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner since Spring Training. The 29-year-old is an impending free agent who could become available this summer if San Francisco falls out of the race.”
mlb.com/news/bumgarner-trade-rumors-phillies-inter…
Really not much to cover. I would imagine other teams have done their “due diligence” as well.
Thanks @cat. I think maybe I just think it’s a bigger story than it is because it’s the team I follow. Just seems odd that they ran the story about Watson but nothing about MadBum? I feel like the MadBum thing is a bigger story but I’m biased.
MLBTR makes judgement calls on how valid a rumor is. If there is additional input substantiating the rumor they will publish it. My guess is, there wasn’t anything more, or another source downplayed the seriousness of it.
Sometimes we do accidentally miss news items. Usually if something isn’t on this site there’s a reason.
Got it. Thanks everyone for the responses. I am hoping the reason is that there’s no validation that the rumor is true.