and the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League in 2002. In 2003, he played for the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League. After the 2003 season, the Baltimore Orioles selected Bautista in the Rule 5 draft and carried him on their Opening Day roster. He made his MLB debut with Baltimore on April 4, 2004. After playing 16 games with the Orioles, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays claimed him off waivers on June 3. Twenty-five days later, the Kansas City Royals purchased him from Tampa Bay after a 12-game stint with the Devil Rays. He played 13 games for the Royals before they traded him to the New York Mets on July 30 for Justin Huber, who then traded him minutes later to Pittsburgh with Ty Wigginton and minor leaguer Matt Peterson for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger. This series of transactions made him the first player to appear on five different Major League Baseball rosters in one season, only since matched by Oliver Drake in 2018. (Drake, however, actually played for all five teams, while Bautista only played for four; he never actually suited up or played for the Mets.) Bautista played in 11 games for the Pirates in 2005. In 2006, his first full season in the major leagues, Bautista hit .235 with 16 home runs (HR) and 51 runs batted in (RBI). The following season in 2007, he posted similar numbers in 142 games, finishing the season with a batting average of .254, 15 home runs and 63 RBI. That same year, he became the starting third baseman for the Pirates. He took over for reigning National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez, who moved to second base. Bautista was to be the Pirates' starting third baseman and backup outfielder in 2008. From June 14 to 24, he hit five home runs in a span of nine games against interleague opponents Baltimore, Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and the New York Yankees. However, he struggled offensively for most of the year, and after the 2008 trade deadline Bautista lost his starting job to the newly acquired Andy LaRoche. Bautista was optioned to the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians on August 13. Toronto Blue Jays 2008 On August 21, 2008, the Pirates traded Bautista to the Blue Jays for a player to be named later, who eventually was Robinzon Díaz. The Blue Jays needed a