One of the many trades the Pittsburgh Pirates made during last year’s trade deadline was sending left-handed starter Bailey Falter to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for two players. One of the players the Bucs received was relief pitching prospect Evan Sisk. The Southpaw’s 2026 campaign looks like it could be a breakout year, and there are a handful of parallels you can draw between him and former Pirates All-Star and all-time holds leader Tony Watson.
Sisk has tossed 19 innings this year, working to a strong 1.42 ERA, 1.83 FIP, and 1.00 WHIP. He is getting plenty of K’s, with a 31.6% strikeout rate. Although Sisk struggled with his control in a limited sample size in 2025, he is showing much better location, with a 6.6% BB%. He has yet to allow a home run, and for a good reason. Opponents have struggled to make quality contact vs the lefty. He is in the 95th percentile of exit velocity (84.7 MPH) and has a zero percent barrel rate.
Aside from pitching with the same hand and similar size (Watson is listed at 6’3”, 224-LBS, while Sisk comes in at 6’2”, 209-LBS), both were late-blooming relievers. Watson did not become a full-time member of the Pirates’ bullpen until his age-27 season in 2012. Sisk, who is becoming a staple in the Pirates’ pen, is in his age-29 campaign.
Both Sisk and Watson have similar pitching styles. Both were primarily sinkerballers during their time in Pittsburgh. Although Watson’s sinker averaged out around 93-94 MPH with the Pirates, compared to Sisk’s average sinker velocity of 90.6 MPH, perceived velocity helps close some of the gap. With seven feet of extension off the rubber, Sisk’s perceived sinker velocity comes in at 91.6 MPH. Watson only had six feet of extension during his final year with the Pirates in 2017. That put his perceived sinker velocity at 92.5 MPH.
Both Sisk and Watson have nearly identical career exit velocities and launch angles. The former currently has an exit velocity of 85.9 MPH and a launch angle of 10.9 degrees through 36.2 innings pitched. Meanwhile, the latter ended his career with an 86 MPH exit velo and 11.8 degree launch angle in the years he pitched in the Statcast Era (2015 onward).
There is also the fact that both are low-arm angle lefties. Baseball Savant does not track arm angle before 2020. Watson’s average arm angle in his final 2021 season with the San Francisco Giants was just 19 degrees. That’s comparable to Sisk’s arm slot, which comes in at 23 degrees this year. However, he threw from an even lower, 16-degree arm angle last season.
Sisk has a handful of similarities to Watson, given they were both late bloomers with a similar arm angle, the ability to induce soft contact, a similar pitch mix, and velocity. Hopefully, that is a sign of things to come for Sisk. The Pirates’ bullpen could surely use a pitcher anywhere near as good as Tony Watson was during his time with the Pirates.
