Pirates trade Jose Tabata for Michael Morse

The Pirates have traded Jose Tabata to the Dodgers for Michael Morse and cash, Jon Heyman tweets. News of the deal broke shortly after the deadline.

Tabata is, obviously, mostly irrelevant -- he's really just a contract to offset some of the money owed to Morse, who's making $7 million this year and will make $8 million next year. Morse went from the Marlins to the Dodgers in the Mat Latos / Hector Olivera deal and is now being passed around like a hot potato. He hit well with the Giants in 2014, but he's had a disastrous 2015 season and has actually been below replacement level in three of the last four years because his defense is terrible.

Morse is a right-handed hitter who, at least theoretically, has a bit of offensive ability, and UZR thinks he's much worse in the outfield than he is at first base. So maybe he can be somewhat useful down the stretch as a caddy to Pedro Alvarez, who's one of a small number of players who's a worse defender than Morse is. In general, though, I wouldn't expect much from this move, and it probably helps to see it mostly as a financial transaction; the exact amount of money the Dodgers are sending the Pirates is relevant here. When Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer return to give the Pirates more help from the right side, I'd expect the Bucs to designate Morse for assignment or ship him out in a late-August waiver deal -- unless, of course, he can recapture some of that 2014 magic.