Less than one year ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates gave a six-year extension to Jose Tabata with several option years tacked onto the end. The idea was that if Tabata became a useful regular, he'd be locked up at below-market rates. At the time, Tabata was already a fairly useful player, and he was just 22. Seemed like a hard contract to dislike.
Jose Tabata Optioned, Gorkys Hernandez Recalled
But the qualifier up there is important. Useful. Which Tabata has not been this year, not in the slightest:
| Year | AB | BB | SO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 252 | 17 | 43 | .230 | .295 | .341 | .636 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com
After a half-season, the Pirates figured out he wasn’t going to help himself or the team in the majors:
#Pirates recall Gorkys Hernandez and option Jose Tabata.
— Michael Sanserino (@msanserino) July 3, 2012
The contending Pirates could really, really, really use a productive outfielder, but Tabata wasn't the answer this year. Unfortunately, Hernandez probably isn't either, as he's a year older than Tabata, but he wasn't hitting that much better than Tabata in Triple-A.
Hernandez and Drew Sutton will likely pick up the bulk of Tabata's at-bats.
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