May 8, 2014 By John Perrotto for The 2 min read

PITTSBURGH — There is no finer person in the Pirates’ clubhouse than Josh Harrison.

He’s energetic, upbeat and personable. No one plays harder or hustles more, and he provides great versatility with his ability to play all over the infield and outfield.

Quite simply, Harrison is impossible not to like as a person.

However, he is a major league right fielder about as much I am an Olympic high jumper. And this is coming from a 50-year-old man with a vertical leap of 2 ¼ inches.

Yet the Pirates started Harrison in right field for a fourth straight game Tuesday night against the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park. Harrison entered the evening with a career .254 batting average, .285 on-base percentage and .379 slugging percentage in 613 plate appearances.

To Harrison’s credit, he has made the move look good by going 6-for-12 with a double and two triples in the first three games.

Yet the fact that Harrison is now the Pirates’ best option is right field is a sad example of how bad of a turn the Pirates have taken since last season when they posted their first winning record since 1992 and made the postseason. It is a position Harrison should be playing only as part of a double switch in the 14th inning.

Manager Clint Hurdle, in fairness, doesn’t have any good options for right field. Jose Tabata and Travis Snider have once again proven this season that they are not everyday major league outfielders.

Tabata was hitting .247 with no home runs in 31 games and 77 at-bats going into Tuesday while Snider had a .213 batting average and three homers in 30 games.

Of course, the Pirates have Gregory Polanco at Class AAA Indianapolis and he’s currently the best player in the minor leagues, hitting .397 with four home runs in 29 games. However, as has been rehashed over and over, he isn’t coming to the Pirates until they are assured he will not accrue enough service time this season to become eligible for salary arbitration a year early.

Thus, you have Josh Harrison playing right field and last October feeling like nothing more than a distant memory.