According to multiple reports, the Pirates are close to signing reliever Octavio Dotel. The contract is expected to be worth much less than the $6 million Dotel received last year. He would be a closer candidate, along with Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek.
The Pirates will need to remove a player from the 40-man roster before adding Dotel. It seems that could be delaying the signing at this point. The Pirates still have plenty of players that could come off the roster without the bat of an eye, which gives me the feeling that something else might be happening. Maybe Neal Huntington is working out a trade for one of the fringe bench players on the roster. I would not be surprised.
