Former A’s pitcher Dotel dies in a nightclub roof collapse

MLB

Octavio Dotel, who died Tuesday, pitched for 13 teams over 15 major league seasons, He was 7-4 with 29 saves and 88 strikeouts in 66 innings in 60 games for the A’s in 2004 and ’05. JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Former A’s reliever Octavio Dotel was among the victims who died after the roof collapsed at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic early Tuesday morning, according to multiple reports.

He was 51.

Dotel pitched for 15 seasons in the majors for 13 teams. The A’s were his third stop, coming over from the Houston Astros in a three-way trade during the 2004 season. Dotel had 22 saves and won six games in 45 appearances for the 91-win A’s. The hard-throwing right-hander played in just 15 games the following season before undergoing Tommy John surgery.

The Mets, the team that signed Dotel as a 20-year-old from Santo Domingo, held a moment of silence for Dotel before Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins at Citi Field, during which they wrote “In Memoriam” on the scoreboard. The Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League (LIDOM) also paid tribute to Dotel on social media, expressing “grief over [his] death.”

Officials had previously named Dotel among the injured.

“After the authorities saved him alive from the rubble of the nightclub, former MLB player and World Series champion Octavio Dotel has been declared dead at the hospital,” MLB insider Mike Rodriguez wrote on social media.

At least 66 people died and at least 160 were injured when the roof collapsed at the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo, where a concert was taking place, according to authorities.

The Dominican-born Dotel signed with the Mets as an amateur free agent in 1993 and made his MLB debut with them in 1999. He went 8-3 with a 5.38 ERA in 19 appearances, including 14 starts, in 1999, his lone season with the Mets before they traded him to the Houston Astros.

The right-handed Dotel also spent one season with the Yankees, pitching to a 10.80 ERA over 14 relief appearances in 2006.

He pitched for 13 teams, primarily as reliever, during his 15-year MLB career from 1999-2013 and recorded a 3.78 ERA and 109 saves. He was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals team that won the World Series in 2011.

Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the Dominican’s Monte Cristi province, was also killed in Tuesday’s tragedy. Her brother, Nelson Cruz, played 19 MLB seasons, most recently in 2023.

Before Tuesday’s game, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he was “thinking about our people in the Dominican Republic.”

“We have a lot of Dominican community in the baseball world, so our prayers to their families,” Mendoza said.