White Sox sign Octavio Dotel

The Sox signed Octavio Dotel to a two year deal worth $11 million today. This helps to address the bullpen issues the Sox had all of last year. But it brings a guy with good stuff who has had injury problems in the past. He has also missed some significant playing time in recent years. 

What is good about this is that they have given themselves some options. They have acquired some veteran bullpen arms which could help them establish a decent bullpen throughout this season. And it gives them more options with plenty of arms with some bullpen use last year in the farm system in case one of them falters.

This leaves us with Bobby Jenks closing as we know. But it gives us three choices for set up men in Matt Thornton, Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel. Out of the three, at least two of them should have decent years, which will give the Sox a decent back end of the bullpen.  Plus it also takes the pressure off of Linebrink to completely perform up to his contract because there is another veteran arm to split some of the time. 

Another aspect of this is that if Dotel continues his recent history of injuries, its only a two year deal and there is not a no trade clause included with it. Plus, if the Sox are truly out of it by the All-Star break, they have another decent veteran trade possibility to a contending team that could net some decent farm system help. So this turns out to be a pretty good deal that will help the Sox out in some way.

Other news today is that the finalized the Alexei Ramirez deal and designated David Aardsma for assignment. All in all, the moves the Kenny Williams made this offseason have actually put the Sox in a hopeful, optimistic position for contending. They have certainly helped to give them lots of potential for winning and for decent trades and farm help if they are losing. I am sure Williams isn't done though. He probably has at least one more trade coming up somewhere.