Jose Tabata should be traded before it’s too late

Jose Tabata has been through a lot in his young major league career. While showing flashes of talent, getting bad tattoos, or everything in between, Tabata serves a lightning rod for Pirates fans. After showing flashes of pop in spring workouts but fizzling in Grapefruit League games, Tabata is playing very well for the Triple-A Indianpolis Indians, hitting .316/.388/.368 in 24 games. Included in his minors revival is an microscopic 10.5% strikeout rate. While not particularly driving in runs, he has performed well, scoring 12 runs and drawing eight free passes.

All of the above leads us to only one logical conclusion. The Pittsburgh Pirates must trade Tabata. Now. Yesterday. Last week.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington recently touched on Tabata while meeting the press recently. You can find the quote in several places, including HardBall talk, where this quote from Huntington appeared:

“We were aggressive with [Tabata] in what we believe he needed to do to in order to get back to the big leagues,” Huntington said. “And he is working hard to make that adjustment and as important, he is playing hard and showing up every at bat. We have been very open with Jose that while we hope his return to the big leagues with us, he is a guy who may need to get somebody else’s attention and have somebody come get him. If that happens we will be happy for him.”

Let’s recap. The guy pulling the strings on the Pittsburgh Pirates roster is telling us that he wouldn’t mind it at all if Tabata packed up his bats and tat and became someone else’s problem. While Huntington said all the right things, his statement can be taken by potential trade partners as tipping his hands as to long term intentions for Tabata. This could potentially limit those trade partners that may take a chance on Tabata to the truly desperate teams with absolutely no chance to compete.

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Enter the Philadelphia Phillies.

Our friends over at Bleacher Report floated the idea that the Phillies could be well served to ship right-hander Aaron Harang over to the Pirates in exchange for Tabata. The Phillies reportedly are so bereft of outfield prospects that Tabata could play right away. Harang is a lone bright spot for Philadelphia that comes as cheap as they come, signed only through 2015 on a 1-year/$5 Million dollar deal. Harang has started seven games in 2015, posting a 2.38 ERA. What Pirates fan wouldn’t do that deal right now, no questions asked?

Aside from on-the-field considerations, there will never be a better time than now to trade Jose Tabata. Huntington has tipped his hand, and Tabata has already shown his plateau as a major league bat. With his good performance at Triple-A thus far, Neal will never find a better time to send Tabata packing.

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