White Sox agree to terms with reliever Dotel and Cuba's Ramirez

Reliever Octavio Dotel and the White Sox agreed Tuesday on an $11 million, two-year contract, bolstering a bullpen that ranked among the majors' worst last season.

The 34-year-old right-hander spent last season with the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves, but a shoulder injury limited him to only 33 appearances and 30 2-3 innings. He went 2-1 with a 4.11 ERA and was dealt from Kansas City to Atlanta at the trading deadline.

Dotel had reconstructive elbow surgery in 2005 while with Oakland and pitched for the New York Yankees the following year. He has 82 career saves in nine major league seasons.

White Sox general manager Ken Williams said Dotel probably came back too quickly from the elbow surgery and added he passed an MRI and physical exams "with flying colors."

"If you can assess that he's going to be healthy and return back to his normal production level, then the money is secondary at that point and we focus on getting the team to be the best we can possibly be," Williams said during a conference call with Chicago reporters.

He's joining a bullpen that blew 23 save chances, had a 19-25 record and a 5.49 ERA. Upgrading was a major goal for Williams, who signed reliever Scott Linebrink to a $19 million, four-year contract in November. Now, the White Sox have several right-handed setup men for Bobby Jenks, who had 41 and 40 saves, respectively, in the past two seasons.

Dotel will earn $5 million this year and $6 million in 2009.

"What we needed to do was make sure we had a bridge to get the ball to Bobby," Williams said. "Now, I believe we've got multiple options - not just with Dotel but obviously Linebrink. I expect Matt Thornton to rebound and Mike MacDougal to rebound from disappointing years. We feel good about the quality. We feel good about the depth of our bullpen. We also feel good about the ability to not tax Bobby Jenks to the point where we wear him out."

Chicago also agreed to a $4.75 million, four-year contract with Cuban slugger Alexei Ramirez and designated pitcher David Aardsma for assignment.

The deal with Ramirez, who batted .335 with 20 homers and 68 RBIs last season in Cuba, had been in place for a month. An infielder and outfielder, he will receive a $500,000 signing bonus and be paid $950,000 this year and $1.1 million annually from 2009 to 2011.

Ramirez left Cuba in early September to join his wife and children in the Dominican Republic.

Aardsma, a right-hander, was 2-1 with a 6.40 ERA in 25 relief appearances with the White Sox last season.