Wilber Dotel

Organization Prospect Rankings

• 
  Ranked Pittsburgh Pirates #9 prospect in 2026
  BA Grade/Risk: 50/Average
  
  Adjusted Grade: 40
  
  Track Record: Dotel was an older sign late in the 2020 scouting cycle as an 18-year-old out of the Dominican Republic. He has since emerged as a dependable workhorse who has logged more than 300 innings since 2023 while jumping on a level-a-year trajectory. He spent all of 2025 with Double-A Altoona, where he posted a 4.15 ERA with 131 strikeouts over 125.2 innings—the most by any Pirates minor leaguer—and a career-best 8% walk rate. He ranked third in the Eastern League in strikeouts for an Altoona team that made the playoffs.
  
  Scouting Report: The powerful, 6-foot-3, 228-pound righthander has added about 5 mph over the past two seasons to his fastball, which is now averaging 96 and touching 100. He has also worked to better separate his four-seamer and two-seamer while replacing a fringy changeup with a mid-80s splitter in 2025 that he commands more consistently and has emerged as a solid-average swing-and-miss pitch. His upper-80s slider flashes plus. Based on raw traits, it’s one of the more impressive offerings in Pittsburgh’s system, though he has a tendency to overthrow it in two-strike counts. Dotel is still learning how to sequence his now well-rounded arsenal, and his strikeout rate (24%) lagged behind his pure stuff for the second consecutive season. That wasn’t due to control issues, however, as he landed each of his pitches in the zone at least 60% of the time.
  
  The Future: Like fellow power righthander Antwone Kelly, Dotel boasts elite velocity, the chance for three plus pitches and enough strikes to remain a starter. Continued refinement of his slider and ability to finish at-bats could push him into the back of a rotation, with a high-leverage relief role as a strong fallback.
  
  Scouting Grades Fastball: 60 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 55.
• 
  Ranked Pittsburgh Pirates #27 prospect in 2025
  BA Grade/Risk: 40/High.
  
  Track Record: Dotel signed late in 2020 as an 18-year-old out of the Dominican Republic and debuted the following season. He reached High-A Greensboro in 2024, where the 22-year-old went 9-5, 5.33 with 106 strikeouts in 106.1 innings and more interesting underlying data than his surface-level production might suggest.
  
  Scouting Report: Dotel added significantly more power and missed more bats in 2024. His mid-90s fastball gained 3.1 mph, the third-highest year-over-year jump in the minors among pitchers who threw at least 100 fastballs in each season. It now occasionally touches triple digits and gets a decent amount of swing-and-miss because of its flatter approach angle. Dotel also throws a separate 92-94 mph two-seamer to generate ground balls earlier in counts. He overhauled his slider, going from a low-80s slurve to an upper-80s slider that now flashes solid-average potential. Scouts like his feel to fade his upper-80s changeup when he trusts it. Dotel still struggles at times to harness and sequence his arsenal to put hitters away, leading evaluators to wonder whether he’s ultimately better suited in the bullpen.
  
  The Future: Dotel’s pitching style and career arc so far are similar to former Pirates righthander Luis Ortiz, who broke into the majors as a reliever before carving out a role in the back of Pittsburgh’s rotation. Dotel should be ticketed for the upper minors in short order in 2025.
  
  Scouting Grades: Fastball: 60 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 45.