Pirates Hopeful Wilber Dotel’s Rehab Assignment Will Be on Shorter Side
PITTSBURGH — Pirates rookie right-hander Wilber Dotel will start a rehab assignment with Double-A Altoona on Saturday night vs. Reading.
Dotel is scheduled to throw two innings for the Curve, and the Pirates are hoping he won’t require much more time before he gets reinstated from the 15-day injured list.
“Hopefully shorter with it being not a lengthy IL stint,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He was in a really good spot when he left. Really excited and encouraged and put in a lot of work to be able to get back.”
Dotel was placed on the IL with a right lat strain on June 13. The 23-year-old got off to a good start by going 1-0 with a 1.08 ERA through his first seven appearances across two stints. In 16.2 innings, he only allowed two runs on seven hits, with five walks and 17 strikeouts.
But in his last two appearances before being sidelined, Dotel allowed a combined 10 runs on nine hits with four walks and two strikeouts in 1.2 innings of relief, ballooning his season ERA to 5.89.
Kelly thinks the lat issue could have potentially played a factor in the poor performances.
“I’m wondering if this might’ve been bothering him longer than we knew, because the beginning of those last two outings, his fastball velo was down when he came out of the ‘pen,” Kelly explained. “The first outing, he was able to get it back up there a little bit. But the second outing, it just never really seemed to jump. I think it’s that, just being able to get that fastball velocity into the 97-99-100 range that really played up out of the ‘pen. For him, he needs to be healthy to be able to do that.”
While the Pirates still view Dotel, one of their top pitching prospects, as a starter long-term, he gave a struggling bullpen a big boost with his early-season performance.
Once he’s ready to be reinstated, the Pirates will look to count on Dotel to deliver in a bulk-relief role as he did to start his career.
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