Pirates on verge of signing Clint Barmes

The Pirates appear to have their 2012 shortstop signed. That shortstop is Clint Barmes, who played for the Houston Astros last year.

Barmes is a very good defensive shortstop with an unimpressive bat. He isn't a huge liability on offense, and his career numbers are better than Ronny Cedeno's.

The deal is reportedly worth $11 million for two years, which is pretty high. There is a ton of argument going on about this one, and I'm not really sure where I stand.

Basically, the Pirates are probably overpaying here. They could have brought Cedeno back for a year at $3 million and saved money, however they chose to pay more for Barmes, who is better, but not easily much better.

At the end of the day, the Pirates had some money to spend and it's good to see them get a capable big league shortstop early in the offseason and not have to risk spending the entire year with Chase d'Arnaud and Pedro Ciriaco starting.

We'll have more on the move later on.