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Pirates hypothetical 25-man roster: Where does Jose Tabata fit?

Justin K. Aller

Here's the new build of the Pirates' 25-man roster, updated to include the Joel Hanrahan deal and the Francisco Liriano signing. Obviously, the roster coming out of Spring Training will look somewhat different.

STARTING EIGHT
C Russell Martin
1B Garrett Jones
2B Neil Walker
SS Clint Barmes
3B Pedro Alvarez
OF Starling Marte
OF Andrew McCutchen
OF Travis Snider (out of options) / Jerry Sands

BENCH
C Michael McKenry
1B Gaby Sanchez
IF Jordy Mercer
IF Josh Harrison
OF Travis Snider / Jerry Sands

ROTATION
A.J. Burnett
Wandy Rodriguez
Francisco Liriano
James McDonald
Jeff Locke

BULLPEN
Jason Grilli
Mark Melancon
Jared Hughes
Tony Watson
Bryan Morris (out of options)
Vin Mazzaro (out of options)
Justin Wilson

The key here is that there's no longer space for Jose Tabata on the 25-man roster. He's out of options, but I just don't see where he fits. The Bucs could, of course, carry a six-man 'pen or only one utility infielder, but they rarely do such things. If the Pirates were to trade someone from their stash of corner players (Tabata, Gaby Sanchez, Sands, etc.) for a reliever, that would make a bunch of sense. (I'm still happy to have Travis Snider, whose upside I still like more than any of those three players, but the Pirates' current roster needs make the Brad Lincoln-for-Snider deal look a little funny.) In any case, I'd expect the Pirates to hunt for one more reliever.