With the decisions on their options due today, the Pirates did the expected and declined Paul Maholm, Ryan Doumit, and Chris Snyder’s options, but they also came out of left field and declined Ronny Cedeno’s option, as well.
As previously discussed, Cedeno’s not a super-star, but he played solid defense at shortstop last year and that makes him a valuable player, especially in a market thin on shortstops. There just aren’t a whole lot of obvious options, internal or otherwise, for the Pirates without Cedeno on the roster. Jordy Mercer or Chase d’Arnaud might turn into decent Major League players, but that’s far from obvious at this point and Cedeno at $3 million provided a reasonable insurance policy in the likely event that neither of those two are ready to play every day.
Honestly, I don’t know what the Pirates’ plan is this winter. If this whole thing plays out with Yunieksy Betancourt playing shortstop for the Pirates in 2012 …
I don’t even want to think about that.
