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Mark Melancon's kids are pretty pumped about the Giants latest signing
The San Francisco Giants added to their bullpen late Friday night, reaching a multi-year major-league agreement with veteran left-hander Tony Watson. Jon Heyman and Robert Murray of FanRag Sports report the Giants were able to squeeze Watson’s deal under the luxury tax threshold, which was a requirement from their end. The full terms have not been revealed.
Watson’s deal reportedly won’t become official until the Giants can clear a 40-man roster spot. However, news of his deal has already been very well received by at least one faction of Giants fans.
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That faction being the young children of Giants current closer Mark Melancon.
Check out this awesome reaction video Melancon captured while informing his kids of the news on Saturday morning.
when you wake up to hearing that the @SFGiants signed Tony Watson… pic.twitter.com/7m48autGAm
— Mark Melancon (@Mark_Melancon_) February 17, 2018
That’s basically the same reaction we have when there’s news of an actual baseball signing.
Why are Melancon’s kids so excited though? It turns out Melancon and Watson are actually pretty close friends from their time together with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In fact, Melancon has been doing his best to recruit Watson since the end of last season. Understandably, this news was a pretty big deal for him.
Melancon has been recruiting Watson, his former setup man, since September. Called him one of most professional people he's been around and said Watson was impressed by Giants while pitching for Dodgers. "He told me being on the other side, this (Giants) is a postseason team."
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 17, 2018
While Melancon and his family might be pumped, we wouldn’t blame Giants fans if they didn’t share the same excitement. Despite a respectable stint with the Dodgers to finish last season, Watson’s production has been trending in the wrong direction since posting back-to-back sub 2.00 ERA seasons in 2014 and 2015.
Here’s what Yahoo Sports Jeff Passan wrote about Watson in his Ultimate Free Agent Tracker.
Watson’s finest years with Pittsburgh came thanks to elite home run suppression. The last two seasons, as the ball has flown, so has his ERA – and, worse than that, his Fielding Independent Pitching number, which tends to correlate more strongly with future performance.
Maybe Watson will have enough left in the tank to prove effective for San Francisco. But he’ll definitely have his work cut out for him if he hopes to get a similar response from the entire Giants fanbase.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Yahoo Sports Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
