The Indians have hired former reliever Dan Otero for a job in their baseball operations department, The Athletic’s Zack Meisel reports (Twitter link). Otero will work with advanced scouting, beginning a new chapter in a baseball career that spanned eight Major League seasons from 2012-19.
Selected by the Giants in the 21st round of the 2007 draft, Otero went on to post a 3.39 ERA/3.16 SIERA over 403 2/3 innings and 358 games in the big leagues. Armed with only a 90mph fastball and lacking the big strikeout numbers (a career 15.8K%) or spin rates that usually define modern relievers, Otero nonetheless established himself as an effective bullpen weapon.
Otero issued only 56 walks during his career, resulting in a superb 3.4BB% — the second-lowest walk rate of any pitcher with at least 400 innings pitched from 2012-19. Within those same parameters, Otero also had the seventh-best grounder rate (57.7%) of any pitcher, thanks in large part to his ability to limit hard contact.
The right-hander made his MLB debut with the Giants in 2012 before moving on to pitch three seasons with the A’s, and then four seasons in Cleveland from 2016-19. That stint with the Tribe included some big innings during the team’s 2016 postseason run, as Otero posted a 2.70 ERA over 6 2/3 playoff frames. Otero was also a member of the Phillies and Yankees organizations during his career but never made any big league appearances with either team — his last contract was a minor league deal with the Yankees last year, though he was placed on the restricted list prior to the season.
MLBTR congratulates Otero on a fine career and we wish him the best in his new role.
One word for Otero: Solid
Solid reliever in his career and good for him
Several years ago during ST he was whetting a workout in and was heading into the clubhouse when my son yelled to him to see if he would sign his baseball. Rather than ignoring my son and moving on with his day he went out of his way to walk over and sign my sons ball. Class act.
I love spring training. I took my boys to Arizona a few years ago. Campy and Rollie Fingers were signing baseballs for charity. My little one (7 or 8, at the time) guess tearing after a foul ball. Campy calls him over, looking stern. My little one thought he’d broken a rule. Campy says, did you buy it, or catch it. The child responds (quaking) “It was a foul, and I chased it and grabbed it” Campy says, well, all right, then”, signs it, hands it back, and says “you take care of that”. Then he told my older one about playing all positions in a game
The biggest reward if you’re career has ups and downs and you end up playing in many organizations is the experience and knowledge you gain from “stáging” if you will. I see way more baseball players with his background type find their ways to the office and succeed versus established perennial talents. Good juju ahead of this guy
To be fair those perennial talents make considerable money and are happy in their retirements then taking a job like this that drastically pays below what they made.
Remind me the last major player who got a bachelors, went to the hall of fame, AND ran a baseball teams front office.. BTW Chris Young is not a HOFer but I bet that’s as close as you get.
I’m not saying legends typically lean towards book dumb vs book smart but if you love the game so much you don’t just quit like that. There’s maybe a touch of reality or maybe pride not to take that challenge.. So you’ll see them become ambassadors, coaches, pick a different career/passion, or yeah happily retire. Players who generally aren’t lucky enough to do it all get scrappy in a career sense to make a living and that’s my point. There’s the .1% success chance like this guy vs. the .001% chance for say Chipper Jones, Mike Piazza, Ozzie Smith, etc. Could be a basic day job with salary but I’m rooting for another former player to GM in a modern day where your knowledge of analytics, technology, and sociology is incredibly important to winning
$5.665 mill. in career earnings for a 36-year old isn’t bad. It might be low by MLB standards, but if he was good with his money he should have a solid portfolio to supplement his working salary.
When pitchers are successful without high velocity or high spin rates, it means they know to pitch. Bob Tewksbury is the classic example. They can make good coaches and impart real useful knowledge.
Solid, commendable career and those walk numbers are impressive. Good for him and for Cleveland.
A relatively high 9.7 H/9 and only 5.8 K/9 with a low ERA? He was very lucky
I dunno – his FIP was about the same as his overall ERA and he kept the ball in the park. I don’t remember all those hits leading to an inordinate number of runs charged to the the previous pitcher, but maybe his ERA is low because he was giving up their runs and not his own. Also, giving up a little over a hit an inning might not be that damaging if it they are all groundball singles and you didn’t give up any walks.
My recollection is the same as everyone else: he was a solid pitcher and a good guy to have in the bullpen.
Without looking, I bet he had a very high ground ball % and/or low average exit velocity. If you can hit your spots and keep hitters guessing, they’re gonna get bad contact and get sometimes those find holes. Wonder what his oppo SLG is? Especially if you’re not giving up free baserunners, it’s hard to get beat up one base at a time.
Also luck I’d really a sample size thing. If you repeat the performance over 400 games throughout a 10 year career, I think we can agree it’s something more than just luck.
Exactly !
I wish I can be that lucky ! Playing in the bigs , making millions ! The guy was good , you can be lucky one year , but 2 ? 3 years ?
He was 2 picks behind Chris Sale!
His real job is to track Indians management in their personal conduct to prevent another Mickey Calloway
Lmao he had one MLB at bat and struck out. Great job Cleveland!
Long live Chief Wahoo!!!