The Joker

ESPN's Rumor Central (Insider only, sorry) has this to say about the Pirates third base situation:

Now that the Pirates have lost out on Bill Mueller, they plan to turn their attention to Joe Randa, ESPN Insider Jerry Crasnick reports. The Pirates view Randa as a reasonably priced, dependable veteran who will help bring some stability to a young lineup. The team would like to play current third baseman Freddy Sanchez in more of a utility role.

We can hope that this means that some kind of rationale has taken over in the front office. I'm not sure Randa has more to offer at third than Bautista, but he's a free agent and his price is certainly much more stomachable than the $4.75 million that Greg in the comments placed Bell at. I can understand wanting to give Bautista a full year at AAA, and I'm fairly certain that though the blurb on Insider has Randa lined up to start, Sanchez would take that job from him fairly quickly. You know, because he's better.