Pirate Prospect Jose Tabata's Wife Suspected of Kidnapping Infant

There's a crazy story coming out of Florida Tuesday. John Perrotto is reporting that the wife of Pirate prospect Jose Tabata is suspected of kidnapping a two-month old child in Florida. Tabata's wife, Amalia Tabata Pereira, was found with the missing child in Bradenton, Fla. (home of the Pirates' spring camp), about 50 miles away from Plant City, where the baby girl's mother lives and first reported her missing.

There's not much else available in the way of details right now, and I don't want to get into the speculation game here, but Tabata-Pereira is a 43-year-old married to a 20-year-old ballplayer and, according to Perrotto's article, she's got four different aliases. And now she's being accused of kidnapping an infant. I'm sticking with what I said about not speculating, but some of those facts really don't add up.

When the Pirates traded for Tabata last summer, everyone in baseball knew they were getting a very talented player with some questions about his injuries and even more questions about his makeup. In his short time with the Pirates both last fall and this spring, the team seems to have been impressed with his performance on and off the field. Team president Frank Coonelly told Perrotto that they have no reason to think that Tabata himself is involved, but that they're going to keep an eye on the situation. We'll all have to do the same.