Secretly Legendary

Name: Octavio Dotel

Card Company: Topps

Year: 2005

Team: Oakland Athletics

Bats/Throws: R

Ht: 6'0

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines journeyman as: an experienced reliable worker, athlete, or performer. Right next to that definition you’ll see a picture of Octavio Dotel, ok not really but I was trying to make a point. In his 15-year career he managed to pitch for 13 different teams, which is still today the major league record. Dotel may have never been the best bullpen arm in the world, but he did have one thing going for him and that was his ability to strikeout batters at a high clip. So, without further ado let’s begin the analysis of Octavio Dotel.

Dotel began his baseball journey in the Dominican Republic where he was eventually signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Mets in 1993. He would then spend the next 5 years in the minors before being called up during the 1999 season. His rookie season went how most people expect rookie pitcher seasons to go, with an ERA in the 5’s and not a lot of innings pitched. The Mets said screw it and traded him along with Roger Cedeno and Kyle Kessel in the offseason to the Astros for Derek Bell and Mike Hampton. To be honest the Mets could’ve won this trade had they managed to keep Bell or Hampton around for more than one year. But, alas they didn’t and after their 2000 World Series appearance they faded into mediocrity, and as it turns out history is currently repeating itself now.

Dotel would spend the next 5 seasons in Houston where he would have arguably the best seasons of his career. In 2002, Dotel would put together the best season of his career posting a 1.85 ERA to go along with 118 strikeouts in only 97 innings. As a member of the Astros Dotel would compile a 3.25 ERA while striking out 552 batters in 449 innings pitched. Actually, those stats are a bit misleading, you see Dotel was used as a starter in his first season in Houston and if you take away that year his stats look like this (2.64 ERA) (25-19) (482 SO) (374.2 IP). Fun fact, Dotel in 2003 was part of a no-hitter when he along with Roy Oswalt, Billy Wagner and others combined to no-hit the Yankees. However, Dotel in 2004 would be traded to the Oakland A’s in trade that needs its own paragraph.

The year was 2004 the month July and three teams where looking to make a deal, those teams where the Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals. Billy Beane the GM for the Athletics hadn’t yet completely lost his mind and decided that he needed and lock down closer for his Oakland squad to help them make the playoffs. The Royals needed to trade away star outfielder Carlos Beltran because he was unhappy and wanted to play for a winner. The Houston Astros just so happened to be winners and needed an upgrade at CF and had expendable bullpen pieces, so just like that the deal was done.

Houston receives- Carlos Beltran (KC)

Kansas City receives- John Buck (HOU), Cash (HOU), Mike Wood (OAK), Mark Teahen (OAK)

Oakland Receives- Octavio Dotel.

As the dust settles it’s hard to pick a winner from this trade. Houston made the playoffs but lost in the NLCS to the Cardinals, and Beltran signed with the Mets in the offseason. Oakland missed the playoffs and Billy Beane finally lost his mind and eventually in 2014 he traded away the likes of Yoenis Cespedes, Addison Russell out of desperation. He failed and is then forced to trade Ben Zobrist, Jeff Samardzija and Josh Donaldson for scraps to help him “rebuild” and Moneyball if officially dead. And last but not least Kansas City gets dumped with a bunch of mediocrity and continues to suck at baseball both on and off the field until 2014.

Octavio Dotel after the 2005 season would sign a one year $2 million deal to play for the Yankees, where he would compile an ERA over 10 in 14 games. The Royals decided they needed some of that on their team and quickly signed him to a 1-year $5 million deal before being traded to the Braves mid-way through the season for the walking dumpster fire known as Kyle Davies. Dotel would finally manage to stay on one team for more than a year by signing with White Sox in the 2008 offseason. With Chicago Dotel was able to find some stability and was able to regain some of his previous form with an ERA that sat in the mid 3’s. However, he would quickly abandon this stability for a life on the road again and signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the offseason where in half a season with the Pirates he compiled a 4.28 ERA in 41 games good enough to be traded once again. This time he got traded to the Dodgers for James McDonald and Andrew Lambo, but then the Dodgers would trade him in September to the Colorado Rockies for Anthony Jackson. Overall Dotel would finish that 3-team, 2010 campaign with a 4.08 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 64 innings pitched.

Octavio Dotel would then head north to Toronto where he would bounce back with 3.68 ERA before being traded away again. This time he would be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals along with Marc Rzepczynski, Corey Patterson and Edwin Jackson for Colby Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters. This time a trade would finally work out in Dotel’s favor as he would continue to pitch well and help the Cardinals reach the World Series. The Cardinals as we all know won the World Series because Esteban German wasn’t

substituted in for Nelson Cruz (if you don’t read the article) and Octavio Dotel won a World Series Title.

After the Cardinals refused to pick up his team option Dotel became a free agent once again this time signing with the Detroit Tigers. He would go on to have another Octavio Dotel like season with an ERA in the mid-3’s and averaged more than 1 strikeout per inning, helping the Detroit Tigers make the playoffs. Dotel was nails in the playoffs finishing with an ERA of 0.00 in 6 appearances. Unfortunately for the Tigers this was during the even-year San Francisco Giants dynasty and they would end up getting swept in 4 games. Dotel would try and pitch one more year, unfortunately injuries finally caught up to him and he was forced to retire.

Dotel finished his career with a 59-50 record, a 3.78 ERA and over 1,143 career strikeouts in a little over 950 innings pitched. Dotel owns a better SO9 (10.8) (Strikeouts per 9 innings pitched) than the likes of Randy Johnson (10.6), Clayton Kershaw (9.88), Nolan Ryan (9.55) and Sandy Koufax (9.28). However, since he didn’t pitch over 1,000 innings this incredible stat isn’t officially recognized. But then again that’s why I’m here to recognize the forgotten players and shine light on their underappreciated careers.

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