The Seattle Mariners acquired shortstop Brendan Ryan from the St. Louis Cardinals today, removing another shortstop candidate from the market. A week ago we heard that the Pirates had a “mild” interest in Ryan, although there wasn’t any connection to him after J.J. Hardy and Jason Bartlett went off the market.
The shortstop market is very thin for upgrades over Ronny Cedeno at this point. On Friday we heard that the Pirates are still looking for a shortstop upgrade, although it’s looking more likely that Cedeno will be the 2011 starter, while Josh Rodriguez will serve as the backup.