Jayson Stark quotes super-journeyman reliever Octavio Dotel, who's about to begin play with his 13th team as a Detroit Tiger, talking about being traded away from the Pirates.
↵↵↵"When I was in Pittsburgh, I find out I was traded to the Dodgers on TV. I see it, and nobody has told me nothing. And I'm like, 'When did that come out?' Then the manager [John Russell] tells me, 'Hey, did you see the news?' But that was after I see it: 'Dotel traded to the Dodgers.' I'm like, 'What? No.' But my teammates say, 'Yeah.' By the way, I was eating, and they say, 'It's on TV right now.' I came out to see it, and I was like, 'I guess you guys were right.' I was like, 'Wow. How crazy is that?'"
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Awkward! The Pirates dealt Dotel to the Dodgers for James McDonald and Andrew Lambo on July 31, 2010. That's the trade deadline, so when Dotel found out he'd been traded, the Pirates' management might have still been scrambling to make deals or file paperwork. That's about the only time of year it's really acceptable for a player to find out via a TV news report that he's been traded.
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