Rays to sign Asdrubal Cabrera, scuttling weird Pirates rumor

This rumor didn't even last long enough for me to finish my shift at MLBTR, but here goes: The Pirates reportedly had interest in Asdrubal Cabrera, for reasons that aren't clear to me -- even if the Pirates don't end up signing Jung-Ho Kang, they have enough infield help that signing a young veteran who would presumably like to start, and to what I'm sure would have been a short-term deal, would have been a little odd.

Anyway, Cabrera ended up agreeing to terms with the Rays, which didn't make much sense either, at least until you realize it pretty strongly suggests they're about to deal Ben Zobrist, with the Nationals and Giants as potential trade partners. Cabrera will reportedly get one year and around $8 million, so it might be that the price for him was so unexpectedly cheap that the Pirates were interested in him purely as a value play, with the intention of making a trade later. Or it could be they were just checking in with him as due diligence. Anyway, it doesn't matter now.