The Pirates are nearing a deal with Clint Barmes, apparently for two years at roughly $11MM. Though it seems like a somewhat friendly deal for a guy with a career 74 wRC+, it's not a big overpay (if at all). The deal pays him to produce ~2 total wins over the next two seasons, which is less than what he's done over the past four seasons. Depending on your WAR implementation of choice, he's averaged 1.5 to 2 WAR since 2008. I'd say Pittsburgh gave him a slightly more money than he's worth, but considering how the free agent market is shaping up, it's perfectly justifiable. In fact, there's some potential that the Pirates get surplus value out of him.
The real question for the Pirates is if signing Barmes -- at this price -- over Ronny Cedeno was a smart decision. The Pirates had a 2012 club option for Cedeno at $3MM, and chose to buy it out. Barmes is the better of the two, but is the gap big enough to justify paying more for Barmes?
Ultimately, Pittsburgh is paying more for a better shortstop, and -- at least in 2012 -- Barmes will probably give them more bang for their buck than Cedeno would have. But taking into consideration the Pirates' needs, they would have been better off exercising Cedeno's option than handing two years to Clint. It makes more sense for the Pirates, a team that has not had a winning record since 1992, to go with the cheap stopgap. They simply have better ways to allocate their money, considering that they're not built to contend right now. And Cedeno's not so bad, really -- especially if he can play above-average defense at shortstop once again next season. Barring an injury, he should be good for +1 wins in 2012.
1 recs | 8 comments
Fangraphs’ valuation of Cedeno’s 2009 season seems really off.
Julian Levine - November 19, 2011
Should be at -0.4 WAR...
but he’s at 1.8 WAR
Julian Levine - November 19, 2011
Does it really? Typically 1 WAR costs around $5M on the FA market, so it would seem that they’re paying him to produce at about half the league average.
What am I missing?
maguro - November 19, 2011
D'oh.
No, you’re not missing anything. Just a huge brain fart on my part. Sorry about that…I’ll edit it when I get a chance.
Julian Levine - November 19, 2011 via mobile
I think guaranteeing $11 million to a guy who is a career .230/.276/.361 hitter away from Coors Field (in over 1500 PA) is definitely a mistake.
marv3mania - November 20, 2011
Considering that the Pirates were competing for a short time period last year means they have to stop using stopgaps at some point in time.
Timothy De Block - November 20, 2011
I think that point will come soon. Just not now.
Julian Levine - November 20, 2011
I'm not convinced they have a better use for the money
They have to spend some money on the big league payroll this year, or the MLBPA will nuke them. I don’t think Andrew McCutchen is willing to sign an extension right now. Given that they have to spend some money somewhere, I’m not sure whether there’s a better place to spend it — free-agent 1B? Are there any starting pitchers who make sense?
Well, they should’ve exercised Paul Maholm’s option. But given that they couldn’t just bank the surplus from keeping Cedeno, I don’t think this was such a bad idea.
WHYG Zane Smith - November 21, 2011
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