Orioles, Pirates Eyeing Dotel

UPDATE, 12-19-07 at 9:28am: The Bucs also have their eye on Dotel, but are wary of the price and years.

FROM 12-18-07 at 11:13am:

The Orioles don’t have a closer, and Octavio Dotel is the best of the remaining name-brand stoppers.  He’s at least better than Armando Benitez, Keith Foulke, and Bob Wickman (assuming he doesn’t retire).

Normally I wouldn’t support the idea of a non-contending team dropping $6-8MM annually for maybe two years on a guy like Dotel.  But Dayton Moore showed us last year that this strategy can net a decent player at the deadline (he picked up Kyle Davies).  However since Dotel will probably want two years, he’ll be riskier than he was for Moore.  The Royals handled Dotel pretty carefully and his value was high when they dealt him.