The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of seven teams to have inquired on Octavio Dotel, according to a tweet from Enrique Rojas of ESPN (tweet is in Spanish). Rojas mentions the Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins, and New York Yankees as other teams interested, which leaves one team out.
The Pirates signed Dotel last season to be their closer, then flipped him at the trade deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for James McDonald and Andrew Lambo. Dotel was traded a month later to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later. He was able to decline his mutual option for the 2011 season due to the fact he was traded from the Pirates.
The Pirates are looking at back of the bullpen relievers, and could be offering the closer role again this off-season. That was how they managed to sign Dotel last year, despite interest from other teams. Could history repeat itself?
