Monday, November 21, 2011

Transaction Reaction: Clint Barmes

The Pirates signed Clint Barmes to a two-year, 10.5 million dollar deal.
  • I'm not sure how I feel about this deal. I do think the Pirates will benefit greatly from the solid defense, consistency, and veteran leadership that Barmes will bring. Additionally, it's clear the market for middle infielders has trended upward, so the Pirates did a good job of obtaining the guy they wanted for a reasonable price, even though there are a number of teams in need of his services. Apparently the durability and consistency of Barmes proved to be the low-risk exception in a crop of high risk options in the free agent shortstop market.
  • The debatable part of this deal is not the fact that they signed Clint Barmes. It's that they non-tendered an almost identical statistical player in Ronny Cedeno just a few weeks ago, and then paid more to obtain Barmes. The offensive and defensive numbers are eerily similar, so there must have been a personality clash or another kind of clubhouse issue going on. Otherwise, the series of events is a head-scratcher.
Cedeno 2011: .249/.297/.357 UZR/150: 6.8
Barmes 2011: .244/.312/.386 UZR/150: 10.8

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