Clint Barmes plays great defense. That's the most important thing. Shortstop is a position that doesn't require its players to have very great reputations at the plate, assuming they can play well with the glove. Barmes isn't a great hitter, but he isn't the worst guy in the world either. Last year he hit .244/.312/.386 in a hitter friendly Minute Maid Park, which is pretty bad, let's be honest. Saying that there is hope for him to get better isn't the most intelligent thing to do, as PNC Park really doesn't fit him very well as hitter. More than half of Barmes 2011 home runs would not have gone out in PNC Park, although the bigger outfield could help him watch a few more fly balls drop in for hits. My projection is a little bit hopeful I think, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him hit significantly worse than that. He's a guy that has struggled with strikeouts, so cutting down on those could help him out. The important thing is for Barmes to continue to play the great defense he has played in his career. I don't think he's a big upgrade from Cedeno, but I would argue that he's a marginal upgrade.
Navarro is one of the unknowns. The Pirates traded Brooks Pounders to get him, and he has shown us why in spring training so far. Navarro has 6 hits in his first 12 at-bats, and most of them have been struck well. His defense is largely an unknown, but it's certainly good enough to fill the back-up shortstop role. Navarro has a lot of upside at the age of 24. He has also shown some power in the minor leagues with 43 home runs and a .279/.348/.430 career minor league line (in 470 games). He isn't near a top prospect (or else we wouldn't have gotten him so cheap), but I like this guy's chances to help us at the major league level this year.
These kinds of players have rarely stayed in the majors for long with the Pirates, you can think back to Josh Rodriguez (wait, who?) last year. That was different because he was a Rule V guy, but it's really tough for these guys to stick in the majors without getting consistent opportunity. The good news is that the Pirates have control of Navarro and don't have to keep him in the major leagues. I think he gets the first shot at being the back-up shortstop. Who knows how well he'll do in a bench role, but I'm interested to see him give it a shot.
You can read the rest of this series here, or click the links below:
Catcher
First Base
Second Base
Third Base
Outfield