Jose Tabata Among Pirates Reassigned To Minors
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The FAN) - Jose Tabata, 26, was among 10 players to be re-assigned to minor-league camp today by Pirates GM Neal Huntington.
Lefty reliever Bobby LaFromboise was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Huntington says they wanted to get Tabata some at bats at Triple-A with his new swing plane and he believes this will help the outfielder gain more consistency.
"He has every chance to be on this club. He probably doesn't deserve to be in Triple-A, but things are where they are. We are very upfront with him. Our job is to get him back in the big leagues and that opportunity may be with someone else," Huntington said.
Former Pirates first-round pick Brad Lincoln was also reassigned, as was Gorkys Hernandez despite hitting .407 this spring with a homer and 3 RBI, but he goes down as well.
"Gorkys had had a great camp," Huntington said. "It's amazing that it's his 27-year-old season, he can still play defense with just about anybody. The swing looks shorter, now is the time to go out and get consistent at bats and see if this swing change is going to translate into the quality we saw so far this Spring training."
Huntington admitted it's hard to tell these guys the news and that some may be called back quickly. The Bucs' general manager said it's a process to determine who is ready and what they are looking for are the players who could be help them right now.
"We don't want to get caught up in Major League Spring Training as a tryout camp," Huntington said. "There is a balance of what they've done in (the regular season) in '14 and there is a balance of their fit on the club and how their skill set compliments the existing group."
Korean infielder Jung Ho Kang is still in camp and it appears he will remain on the big league roster to start the season despite hitting .111 this spring.
"He's not the only player who's struggling statistically across baseball or in our camp," Huntington said. "We've seen some really good things, a less than 30 plate appearance sample size is ridiculously small and if he hits three of the balls he's hit on days the wind is blowing out instead of the days the winds are blowing in, we'd have a very different player right now 'cause we're excited about a guy who's hit four home runs during spring instead of a guy who's hit one and is one for his last… something. We like the bat speed, we like the power."
Among the others reassigned: RHP Deolis Guerra and Josh Wall, LHP Charlie Leesman, INF Steve Lombardozzi, Brent Morel, Deibinson Romero and Gustavo Nunez and C Sebastian Valle.
