Dodgers acquire relievers Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani

The Los Angeles Dodgers added left-handed relievers Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani to an already-strong bullpen.

The team with the best record in baseball made headline news with the addition of starting pitcher Yu Darvish at the trade deadline. He’ll be the bold print on the front page of tomorrow’s paper. In lesser print will be the addition of two left-handed relievers, Tony Watson from the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tony Cingrani from the Cincinnati Reds.

Watson was an elite setup reliever for the Pirates in 2014 and 2015 when he had back-to-back seasons with ERAs under 2.00. He continued to be a steady presence in the pen last season, first as a setup guy and then as the team’s closer after they traded away Mark Melancon. Watson started this season as the closer, but lost the job to Felipe Rivero after a rough start.

In 2017, Watson has a 3.66 ERA that comes with a high 4.69 FIP, although his career ERA/FIP split is 2.68/3.59. Perhaps he has the ability to beat his independent pitching numbers. He’s been slightly below replacement-level so far this year according to FanGraphs WAR (-0.1 WAR) and is projected to be slightly better than replacement-level over the rest of the season (0.1 WAR).

Going to Pittsburgh in the trade are two minor league prospects, infielder Oneil Cruz and right-handed pitcher Angel German. Cruz was signed out of the Dominican Republic as a 16-year-old in 2015. He’s now 18 and hitting .240/.293/.342 in 89 games for the Great Lakes Loons in the Midwest League (A ball). MLB.com has him ranked as the Dodgers’ 17^th-best prospect.

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German was an international free agent signing out of the Dominican Republic in 2013. He throws hard, like many young pitching prospects, but has had trouble harnessing his velocity. In five minor league seasons, he has a 5.10 ERA and 1.58 WHIP, with 129 strikeouts and 89 walks in 150 innings. He’s been used exclusively out of the bullpen over the last two years and is having his best season this year, with a 1.91 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 33 innings with the Great Lakes Loons.

Cingrani spent part of last season as the closer for the Cincinnati Reds. He had 17 saves with a 4.14 ERA. He hasn’t closed any games this year and has struggled to a 5.40 ERA with a very ugly 7.01 FIP. He strikes out plenty of hitters and has limited walks this year, which has been a consistent problem for him in his career. The big problem with Cingrani in 2017 is the nine home runs he’s allowed in 23 1/3 innings. His home runs per nine innings is the highest in baseball for pitchers with 20 or more innings pitched. The move to Los Angeles should help.

In exchange for Cingrani, the Reds are reportedly getting back outfielder Scott Van Slyke and minor league catcher Hendrik Clementina. Van Slyke had his most productive year in the big leagues in 2014 when he hit .297/.386/.524. He has played fewer and fewer games in the major leagues every year since and has hit just .222/.303/.353 in 177 games over the last three years. He has been roughly league average against left-handed pitching (104 wRC+).

Hendrik Clementina is a 20-year-old catcher out of Curacao. He recently made the roster for the 2017 Pioneer League All-Star team and is hitting .370/.439/.554 in 24 games with the Ogden Raptors. Unlike Van Slyke, Clementina’s best days in baseball are likely still ahead of him.

Next: Dodgers acquire Yu Darvish

The Dodgers got the big gun for the starting rotation in Darvish, but couldn’t get Zach Britton for the bullpen. Instead, they passed on the elite lefty reliever and settled for two non-elite lefties. Based on FanGraphs WAR, the Dodgers have the second-best bullpen in baseball (behind the Yankees), but most of their innings have come from right-handed pitchers. Watson and Cingrani will give them two more lefties to pair with Luis Avilan when they face the lefty bats of Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper of the Nationals or Anthony Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs in the postseason.