Dotel was among the victims who lost their lives in when a nightclub roof collapsed in the Dominican Republic.
Octavio Dotel, who debuted with the Mets in 1999 and went on to play for a total of thirteen teams in his major league career, has died. The 51-year-old was one of dozens of victims who lost their lives last night when the roof at the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic collapsed.
Dotel made his professional debut as a 21-year-old with the Gulf Coast League Mets in 1995 and earned a promotion to the St. Lucie Mets during that season. Over the course of the years that followed, he worked his way up the Mets’ minor league system with stops in Double-A Binghamton and then-Triple A Norfolk. Baseball America ranked him 45th on their list of the top prospects in baseball ahead of the 1999 season.
In late June of that year, Dotel made his major league debut in a start against the Braves. He went on to throw a total of 85.1 innings that year, working mostly as a starter, and finished his rookie campaign with a 5.38 ERA. The highlight of Dotel’s time with the Mets was undoubtedly his postseason performance that year, particularly as he threw the final three innings of the famous grand slam single game.
Following the season, the Mets included Dotel in the trade that brought Mike Hampton and Derek Bell to Queens. After putting up similar numbers in his sophomore season in 2000, Dotel really broke out in 2001, and from the beginning of that season through the end of the 2003 season, Dotel put up a 2.33 ERA over 289.1 innings of work with the Astros. And after 34.2 more good innings with the Astros in 2004, Dotel was traded to the A’s.
The rest of his stops from that point through the end of his career in 2013 were with the Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox, Pirates, Dodgers, Rockies, Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Tigers. Dotel finished his major league career with a 3.78 ERA in 951.0 innings of work.