The Pittsburgh Pirates have officially announced that they’ve declined the club options for Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Doumit, Chris Snyder, and Paul Maholm. We heard earlier that Maholm and Snyder would be officially declined. The only move that comes as a surprise is Cedeno, who had a $3 M option with a $200 K buyout, and played strong defense this year.
By declining the options, the Pirates enter the off-season looking for help at shortstop, catcher, and starting pitching. They can still re-sign any of the above players to fill those needs. I profiled the free agents for each position (shortstop, catcher, starting pitching). The Pirates can find cheaper alternatives on the open market, all while getting equal or greater performance. That said, there are no guarantees that the Pirates land any of the desired players on the open market. By declining the club options the Pirates have a chance to upgrade the team, but they turn down the convenience of filling all three positional needs before the off-season really begins.
The buyout prices were $750 K each for Maholm and Snyder, $500 K for Doumit, and $200 K for Cedeno. The 2012 40-man roster/payroll page is updated.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
The Pirates are taking 2 steps back after a step forward… If you weren’t giving Maholm 9 .75 then they needed to offer a 2 year deal at a cheaper price. That is what pitching cost. Cedeno I didn’t love but I seen nothing from any of the prospects. Please stop telling me to wait and see how this pans out I already know that answer. 2 has beens and 3 never was invited to camp. So tired of the Pirates not spending at the Major League level.
it was prudent to decline all the club options. Its ridiculous to say anything at this time until we know how trades and free agency shake out. We can do better than Cedeno. I think they will offer arbitration to Lee and Doumit.
I have been reading comments on different blogs and I must say laughing my a$$ off.
All the people that hate the Pirate FO and owner are up in arms over they’re declining of these options.
Lets face it the Pirates are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
I said this before, let the process play out before condeming all the moves because nobody knows what this team will look like in spring training.
There is nothing wrong in debating these moves and even questioning them but the anger and condemnation is over the top. If these were really top players I could understand some of it but these are replaceable players who are too expensive for what they give you.
I agree that it’s too early. Pirates can’t even negotiate with free agents yet. We’re a little over a month away from free agency really heating up. There’s five months to go until the season stars. Far too early to draw any conclusions.
Tim I never paid attention to the minor leagues until the new ownership and FO took over.
I watched the games on Directv and just followed what free agents they picked up in the off season but when the new ownership took over and emphasized the importance of the minors plus when your blog came along i understood that for the Pirates to have a truly viable organization they would have to rely on that system to compete.
For all the detractors of this current ownership and front office where were they the previous 15 years when those people ignored the draft?.
Can you imagine where the Pirates would be right now if high quality players would have been drafted all those years. There wouldn’t be hand wringing over guys like Cedeno etc.
I was a person who didn’t pay attention to the draft but at least I now understand the importance and realize that teams like Tampa took ten years to build their systems it will take that long for the Pirates too.
The Pirates have only had four drafts for this system to be fully functunal it will take a lot more drafts. I am almost 70 I won’t live to see the end result’s but as long as your blog and other people like you keep the Pirate front office feet to the fire this team can be truly competitive and not be a laughingstock in the future.
Thank you for your contribution to the future of Pirate baseball in the great city of Pittsburgh.
Tough to believe we couldn’t have picked up the options and made some trades, especially if we included large sums of money in the deals.
No Anger here
Cedano = not a big loss but he was cheap enough to keep
Maholm = Not worth the Money 9mil
Snyder = Back Surgey Catcher….eh I wouldnt risk it for 6mil
Doumit = Cant catch a ball, had a nice bat but only plays 2 months of every season
If they would have kept them that would have been alot of money $$$ Tied up in Losers!!
I don’t know what they have in mind for SS, but I do like Mercer and I hope they give him a chance, but I think they will get a SS either by trade or FA and make D’Arnaud the back up figuring that Mercer can spend at least half a year in AAA in 2012. Anyone thinking Harrison is going to play SS in Pittsburgh is wrong.
Having said all of this I would not have let Cedano go and I would offer Lee and Doumit arbitration.
What a terrible FO we have, worst in MLB by far. So you are telling me that a team that lost 90 games now has to search for starters at 3 major positions, great. I am so tired of defending this organization, their woes have nothing to do with being small market or not having money, they just don’t care about winning, simple as that. What a joke, glad we have Steelers and Penguins.
It’s about time you stop defending this organization….[/sarcasm]
Can’t wait to see what Rule 5 is going to play SS. Ridiculous as usual.
Dumpity Dump Dump, Dumpity Dump Dump