For whatever reason (and I have no real legitimate one), I have this feeling that the Pirates are going to sign Ramon Santiago. Ever since I saw his name on the free agent list after the Pirates didn't pick up Cedeno's option, he stuck out to me. There is no reason for that, and he's certainly not my first choice, but he is inevitably my prediction for who the Pirates sign. That's weird for me to say, because I hate baseless sports predictions more than anything, but hey, sometimes you've just gotta go with it.
Just last week, MLB Trade Rumors broke the news that the Pirates were "interested" in Santiago, which didn't come as a surprise to anybody, he seems to fit the exact mold of the type of free agent the Pirates usually pursue.
Here's Santiago's career statistics, please try to contain your enthusiasm.
He doesn't wow you at the plate by any means, and Pirate fans are all too used to that from the middle infield. However, Santiago does bring the glove with a 3.6 career UZR/150 rating (for you saberphobics out there - that's pretty strong). The big issue with Santiago is that he has never played anything close to a full season at shortstop in his career. In 2010, he played 85 games as a shorstop, and that's the highest number he has achieved in his career. That said, the flexibility would be nice, he plays a solid second and third base too.
Santiago made $1.35 million last year, so the Pirates could get him at a pretty good price. He isn't going to the best shortstop in the division, he might not even be any better than Cedeno was last year, but in my eyes he would be a serviceable shortstop for 2012 while we see what we have in Chase d'Arnaud.
The other player I think the Pirates will be chasing pretty aggressively is Clint Barmes. Here are his stats:
The bat that Barmes has beats Santiago's because of the additional power he has. In 2009, he hit 23 home runs and slugged .440, which is a very good season for a shortstop who plays very good defense (7.2 UZR/150 in his career, much better than Santiago and Cedeno). Hearing all that is pretty encouraging. It's a no-brainer that Barmes is the best option the Pirates can reasonably expect to have a chance at signing. Barmes made near $4 million last year, so the Pirates would have to pay more to get him, but it's not like the team doesn't have money to spend filling their gaps this offseason.
Both of these shortstops are 32 years old, so neither is an answer for the future. Barmes seems like a very solid option and would indefinitely be an upgrade from Cedeno, the question is whether the Pirates can get him. The Pirates aren't the only team looking for help at the shortstop position. The Astros have interest in bringing Barmes back, then the Dodgers, Giants, and Rockies all have serious interest in him. It never seems to work out favorably for the Pirates when a player they are pursuing is being considered by multiple other teams.
It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility to think that the Pirates could sign Barmes, they have enough money to compete with any other team financially for a mid-tier player like Barmes, but the 19-year losing streak certainly doesn't help their case.
Obviously these aren't the only two options, and the Pirates could easily end up signing someone else to play shortstop for them in 2012 (or they could sign no one and just let d'Arnaud and Pedro Ciriaco duke it out, which would be ugly). However, I think both of these players would be upgrades from Cedeno and are definitely financially considerable. The Pirates really confused me to when they didn't pick up Cedeno's option, and if they don't sign one of these two guys I am going to be even more lost.