Pittsburgh Pirates Prospect Wilber Dotel, once a hidden gem, now commands attention with his blazing fastball and devastating splitter.
In the Pittsburgh Pirates’ vast array of pitching prospects, Wilber Dotel seemed to be lost amongst all the depth.
Not anymore.
The 23-year-old right-hander was placed on the 40-man roster in November to be protected from being picked in the Rule 5 Draft. Baseball America rates Dotel as the organization’s No. 10 prospect. Pirates manager Don Kelly tabbed Dotel to start the Grapefruit League opener two weeks ago.
While Dotel isn’t likely to be on Pittsburgh's opening-day roster, he could get to the major leagues this season.
“Excited about him, man,” Kelly said at the Pirates’ spring training camp in Bradenton, Fla. “When you talk about a physical guy and his attention to detail, and you see the physicality, you see the velo, but when he’s spinning it, working on the split he’s been trying to master.”
The 6-foot-3, 238-pound native of the Dominican Republic was just 7-9 with a 4.15 ERA in 27 starts last season with Double-A Altoona. Those numbers weren’t overwhelming, but he led all Pittsburgh minor leaguers with 131 strikeouts and 125 2/3 innings pitched.
“I don't really know what they saw, but I'll tell you this right now: for sure, I knew that I needed to work on some stuff, but I worked really hard just to put myself in a good spot for them to take a look and give me this opportunity,” Dotel said when asked why he thought the Pirates felt he was worth rostering despite the so-so surface statistics.
Dotel’s fastball sits in the 95-mph range but can reach 100 when he needs a big out. He also throws a slider, but the pitch that has started to separate him from other prospects is a splitter. Dotel just started using the split last season, and minor-league hitters were baffled by it.
The Pirates did not sign Dotel until he was 18, two years older than most Latin American players who enter professional baseball. They gave him a modest $100,000 signing bonus. Though Dotel has been quietly working his way through the farm system, he is no longer anonymous.
“It feels good (to get noticed),” Dotel said. “Things that I wasn't expecting, obviously, but that's the product of hard work. And those are the things that (if you) put in hard work, you benefit from. It's just something I wasn't expecting, but it feels really good, for sure.”
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