The Detroit Tigers have officially added Octavio Dotel to their bullpen today at the Winter Meetings after the rumors were swirling that the team was competing with the Cardinals among others for his services. The AL Central has bulked up their bullpens recently with the Royals signing Jonathan Broxton and the Twins signing Matt Capps as well. Tim Dierkes reports that he's going to join a solid group and Dotel should specifically handle righties well:
Dotel, 38, posted a 3.50 ERA, 10.3 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 1.00 HR/9, and 30.1% groundball rate for the Blue Jays and Cardinals this year. The Cardinals chose a $750K buyout over his $3.5MM club option after the season. Dotel is known for his dominance against right-handed hitters and struggles against left-handed ones. In November as part of the new collective bargaining agreement, Dotel was changed from a Type A free agent to Type B, and it was decided that the Cardinals would not have to offer him arbitration to receive a supplemental draft pick as compensation. The Tigers now have righties Jose Valverde, Joaquin Benoit, Al Alburquerque, and Dotel at the back end of their bullpen.