It was a rather quiet trade deadline day for the Pittsburgh Pirates however shortly after 4 p.m. ET the team traded Jose Tabata to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Michael Morse and cash.
Earlier in the season Pirates general manager Neal Huntington stated that he did not think Tabata would make the major league club this season and that they were looking for other ways to find him a starting opportunity.
Tabata did appear in 27 games this season with the Pirates though sparingly started. He was designated for assignment on June 28. He hit .289 on the season with no home runs and four RBI. His most known contribution this season was being hit by a pitch by Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer in the ninth inning ruining a chance at a perfect game.
Huntington stated in a teleconference Friday night that Tabata did not request a trade and remained professional. He stated that sometimes moving on is the best for both sides.
He was first acquired by the Pirates in 2008 and in 2011 signed a six-year extension that had the potential to be worth as much as $37.25 million through the 2019 season. This became a contract which was hard to move.
In 2010 Tabata batted .299 on the season and also led all major league left fielders with a 2.09 range factor per game.
Tabata felt he had something to prove in Spring Training and tried to alter his swing. His goal was to become less of a ground ball hitter, something which harmed his offensive game.
This is the second trade Morse has been involved in during the 2015 trade deadline. The first was sending him from the Miami Marlins to the Dodgers in a three-team trade which included 13 players and a competitive balance pick.
Previous destinations for Morse were the Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, Marlins, briefly the Dodgers and now the Pirates.
He is batting .213 on the season with four home runs and 12 RBI. Morse is signed through the 2016 season as he signed a 2-year $8 million deal with the Marlins this past off-season.
Morse has 103 career home runs and a .276 career average. His best season was 2011 when he hit .303 and hit 31 home runs and drove in 95 runs to go with a .910 OPS. He has battled the injury bug this season.
Huntington stated that Morse’s expectation is to be a right-handed bat off the bench that can spell out Pedro Alvarez at first base.
He originally made it into the major leagues as a shortstop until Yuniesky Betancourt came into the league and as a utility player spent time at first base and left field.
Morse was a member of the 2014 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. He signed a one-year contract worth $6 million and in game five of the NLCS hit a game-tying home run off Pat Neshek. Now fellow Pirate Travis Ishikawa a three-run home run in that game which sent the Giants to the World Series. Morse went 4-for-16 in the World Series and in game seven drove in what turned out to be the game-winning run.
Assessing the trade, Huntington said that Morse is a year removed from being a great baseball player. As for the second year of his contract, the general manager said that if the team can get Morse back to where he was a year ago it was a great bargain and if not, then a decision will have to be made.
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