Clint Barmes to sign with Padres

Clint Barmes has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Padres, Ken Rosenthal tweets.

Thus concludes Barmes' three-year run with the Pirates. Barmes' initial two-year, $10.5 million deal with the Bucs wasn't great, but it was much better than his offensive numbers indicated. Pirates fans lumped him and Rod Barajas together a lot in 2012, but Barajas' deal truly was a disaster, and Barmes' wasn't. He was the key to the Pirates' dramatically improved infield defense, and he continued being useful even after Jordy Mercer took the Bucs' starting shortstop job. And as Pat Lackey notes, the Michael Martinez saga demonstrates that competent middle infielders don't grow on trees, or if they do, the Pirates don't know where the orchard is.

Good luck to Barmes in San Diego, where he'll surely continue to gobble up ground balls. It appears very likely now that the Pirates will go with Pedro Florimon or Justin Sellers as their backup shortstop.