As mentioned yesterday, in exchange for their contribution of Mike Wood and Mark Teahen to the Astros' package for Carlos Beltran, Oakland received Octavio Dotel from Houston. The A's decision to make Arthur Rhodes their closer was second-guessed from the beginning, and although Rhodes successfully converted all but one of his save opportunities in April, he began to lose the support of management by May. Oakland then began haphazardly parceling out some of the closing responsibilities to Jim Mecir and Chad Bradford. However, the club still craved an "established" closer.

Outside of filling in for Billy Wagner in 2000, Dotel acted as a setup man prior to assuming Houston's closing duties this year. Consequently, he does not possess much more experience with the role than Rhodes, who was also a long time setup man before becoming Oakland's closer this season. In fact, there were faint rumblings of discontent over Dotel's 0-4 record and failure to convert three of his seventeen save opportunities.

I like both pitchers, and I still believe that Rhodes could be an effective closer if his team would simply trust him. From a skill perspective, Dotel strikes out a few more batters than Rhodes, walks a few less, and is an extreme fly ball pitcher. Having survived Minute Maid Park, Dotel should find the Network Associates Coliseum a friendlier environment. Oakland possesses one of the worst defenses in the league, but Houston's is not much better, so I do not anticipate a big shift in Dotel's hit rate. He should be a strong addition to the Athletics' bullpen and a small improvement over Rhodes. Hopefully, Oakland will continue to see the grass as greener with Dotel even though he's now on their side of the fence.

Although Houston was not particularly eager to part with Dotel, the Astros possess a ready replacement in Brad Lidge, making their closer an expendable commodity in their pursuit of Beltran. The move also makes sense economically for Houston. Lidge still should be at least a year away from arbitration eligibility, while moving into the closer's role should mean a multi-million dollar raise for the arbitration-eligible Dotel, who likely will be eligible for free agency after the 2005 season.