Pirates Have New Starting Pitcher Option

Those outings were brief, were he showed flashes of his potential and what he could do on the mound, but this Cardinals appearance was exactly what Dotel needed.

Dotel mostly went with his four-seam fastball, throwing it 70% of the time, or 31 of the 44 pitches he threw.

He averaged 99.0 mph on his four-seam fastball, which he only got as low as 97.9 mph in the sixth inning, his fourth inning pitching. He also touched 100+ mph twice and the Cardinals lineup had no answers for it at all, with his three strikeouts coming on that pitch.

"Actually that pitch right there, it got off a little bit, and that was the location, but it went high a little bit on that situation," Dotel said on his fastball postgame. "But yeah, every pitch on two strikes, it's a high leverage situation and the intensity is higher, for sure."

It was a good outing from Dotel, who didn't allow a baserunner, which he didn't do in his first two outings, giving up a home run to All-Star Junior Caminero vs. the Rays and then walking three batters and giving up a hit vs. the Rangers.

Dotel was happy with how the bullpen performed, but also that his strategy on taking it one batter at a time served him well and his pitching.

"It felt good. My goal was to go hitter by hitter and just do that," Dotel said. "And that's what I was doing every inning, just concentrating on getting hitter by hitter."

Why Dotel Could Serve as Starting Option

Dotel spent most of his time in the minor leagues as a starting pitcher, with 84 starts in 98 appearances, before he made his MLB debut.

The Pirates called the 23-year old up as a bulk reliever or someone that could fill in as a starter, with both left-hander Hunter Barco and right-hander José Urquidy stretching out as starters at Triple-A Indianapolis.

Dotel has increased his workload of almost a 100 innings since he became a professional in 2021 to Double-A Altoona in 2025. He also reduced his BB/9 from 4.57 in 2024 to just 3.08 BB/9 in 2025, while simultaneously increasing his K/9 from 8.97 to 9.38 as well.

He gives the Pirates someone that can provide length and also a fantastic fastball that plays at the major league level, despite just less than 15 innings at Triple-A.

The Pirates will need to give their starting pitchers and extra day of rest during long stretches and Dotel can provide that, with his performances showing improvement, even with an added workload.

Dotel has worked incredibly hard for this moment, overlooked as an 18-year old from the Dominican Republic and signing for the Pirates for just $65,000, but still putting in everything to prove he could make it as a major leaguer.

He is here right now and he's earned plaudits from the front office and manager Don Kelly, who have high expectations for their young pitcher.

"I think so," Kelly said pregame. "I haven't known him well. I got to know him in spring. The first side that I got to see him throw was on the force plate mound in the cage. Just seeing and hearing from the development staff, the guy is our hardest worker in the minor league system, the way he goes about it, what he's put into it to get to this point.

"He's really done an amazing job and there's not one person in our coaching and development that has anything negative to say about Dotel at all. Everything that he's put into it, he continues to get better, continues to work on things. We think that there's a really high ceiling.