Los Angeles Dodgers trade reliever Octavio Dotel to Rockies

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers traded Octavio Dotel to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later before the two teams played against each other Saturday at Dodger Stadium, ending the veteran reliever's seven-week stint with the club.

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"Over the course of the final 15 games of the season, it's an extra arm in situations that make sense for him -- versus using up a [Matt] Belisle and a [Rafael] Betancourt in situations that now we wouldn't necessarily have to," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

"Now we've got another proven arm down in our bullpen," he said.

The Dodgers acquired Dotel from the Pittsburgh Pirates minutes before the July 31 trading deadline, giving up longtime prospects James McDonald and Andrew Lambo to get him.

Dotel, who had been closing for the Pirates, gracefully accepted a demotion to a seventh-inning role when he was traded because the Dodgers already had Jonathan Broxton and Hong-Chih Kuo at the back end of their bullpen at that time.

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"This is the shortest trip to Colorado he'll ever take," Dodgers manager Joe Torre quipped. "He's easy to like and easy to have in the clubhouse. I had him before in New York. It was a little tough for him back there because we gave him a number of different jobs to do, so we never really gave him regular work and that may have contributed to his inconsistency."

Dotel posted a solid 3.38 ERA in 19 appearances for the Dodgers. But he also suffered a costly blown save Aug. 16 at Atlanta, when he was called upon to close a game with a two-run lead. That took place three days after Broxton had been taken out of the closer's role because he was struggling badly, and Kuo had gotten into a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the ninth.

Dotel faced two batters that night, walking David Ross to force in a run and giving up a game-winning, two-run single to Orlando Cabrera.

Dotel has a $250,000 buyout on his $4.5 million mutual option for 2011, and the Rockies now are responsible for paying that buyout, should they decide not to exercise the option.

Tony Jackson covers the Dodgers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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