Octavio Dotel Could Have Rejoined The Defending Champions, Or Signed With An MLB-Record 13th Team. Guess Which He Chose.

Octavio Dotel is on his 13th different MLB team, and he's not even a crafty lefty. It's a record of longevity and effectiveness, if not irreplaceability, but it's a record nonetheless. Dotel is very aware of his own milestone, and has been for some time—putting it highest on his list of personal goals, above even pitching for the defending champs. Jayson Stark spent some time with Dotel in Tigers camp, and asked him what could possibly draw him away from the World Series-winning Cardinals:

"After I got traded to St. Louis, that's when I started hearing that I tied it, that I tied three other guys in history who played with 12 teams. And I said, 'Really? Wow. Pretty nice.' And immediately, I think, 'It would be nice if I break it.' So from that point on, I thought, well, I would love to stay in St. Louis because the team was really good, but at the same time, I was like, well, if I sign with somebody else, that would be good, too, because that way I'm going to break the record."

In its own strange way, that's real loyalty. Not to a team—Dotel's been traded six times, so he knows what that loyalty is worth—but to a cause. If he breaks camp with Detroit, and there's every indication he will, Dotel will stand alone in the Baseball Encyclopedia Of Neat But Useless Facts (a.k.a. Jayson Stark's body of work), relegating Matt Stairs, Ron Villone and Mike Morgan to footnotes to a footnote.

Call Octavio Dotel the ultimate nomad [ESPN.com] h/t Jeffrey