Former KC Royals relief pitcher dies in tragic roof collapse

The Kansas City Royals lost a member of their baseball family early Tuesday morning. Octavio Dotel, a talented reliever who spent the bulk of a long and productive major league career working out of the bullpens of a dozen different teams, died from injuries sustained when a club roof collapsed in his native Dominican Republic. The Dominican's Dario Libre (link translatable) confirmed the tragic news, reporting that One of at least 27 reported deaths, Dotel reportedly passed away after being pulled from the post-collapse debris of a local entertainment spot. Dotel was 51 years old.

The right-handed Dotel threw his last big league pitch for the Detroit Tigers in 2013. That was also the year he helped the Dominican Republic entry to a World Baseball Classic title.

Kansas City fans who've long followed the club should remember Dotel as a reliever who pitched well for the Royals during the 2007 season.

Octavio Dotel was a bright spot on a mediocre KC Royals team

Losers of 100 games in 2006, Kansas City needed all the help it could get when the club signed Dotel to a free agent deal after that miserable campaign. Having already played for the Mets, Astros, Athletics, and Yankees in seven seasons, Dotel's was a journeyman's career in the making. But he brought nice credentials to the Royals — he was 37-31 with a 3.75 ERA before joining the club, and was one of a half-dozen Houston hurlers who teamed up to no-hit the Yankees in 2003.

Bringing Dotel aboard turned out to be one of the only bright spots for the Royals, who followed up their 62-100 campaign of the year before with an almost imperceptible improvement to 69-93. Pitching exclusively out of manager Buddy Bell's bullpen, Dotel went 2-1 with 11 saves, a 3.91 ERA, and 29 strikeouts in 23 innings.

But as is so often the case with good relievers saddled with the misfortune of pitching for bad teams, Dotel found himself the target of better clubs as the 2007 trade deadline approached. And like other similarly-situated Royal relievers who came after him, like Trevor Rosenthal in 2020, and Scott Barlow in 2023, the Royals answered the call. Mired in the American League Central cellar, they dealt Dotel to Atlanta, where the Braves were still in the race for a National League East title.

But Dotel didn't pitch as well for Atlanta as he had for Kansas City. He have up five runs, one of them unearned, in nine appearances as the Braves' pursuit of a playoff spot ended unsuccessfully.

Dotel tested free agency again that winter and landed with the Chicago White Sox, for whom he pitched for two years before moving on to the Pirates, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and Cardinals before finishing up with the Tigers. He ended his 15-year career with a 59-50, 3.78 ERA, 109-save record. He also pitched 26 times in the postseason, helping the Tigers make it to the World Series in 2012 and, before that, working in five Series games for the World Champion Cardinals in 2011.

Our thoughts are with Dotel's family and friends at this tragic time.