Rays Add Dohmann to Bullpen

Update [2007-1-22 22:04 by Patrick L. Kennedy]: And the last piece of the puzzle is in. Marc Lancaster of the Tampa Tribune is reporting that the the contract is worth $420,000 over one year.

Update [2007-1-22 20:23 by Patrick L. Kennedy]: Both deals are official, with still no dollar figure having been released.

Update [2007-1-22 15:29 by Patrick L. Kennedy]: It is also worth noting that, as a minor omission from Topkin's report, the Rays are expected to finalize a minor league deal with Shinji Mori later this evening that has been in the works for several days since he was dropped from the 40 man roster. Marc Lancaster goes a bit further than Topkin in replacing the word "may" with "expected" in regards to the Mori signing, as he notes on his blog piece.

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On his blog, Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times reports that the Rays have signed former Kansas City and Colorado relief pitcher Scott Dohmann to a major league contract with the hopes that he will provide bullpen help. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed, however he will take the 40 man roster spot of the departed Shinji Mori.

Dohmann

Dohmann, 29 in a few weeks, was drafted in the 6th round of the 2000 amateur draft by the Colorado Rockies out of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He made his major league debut with Colorado in 2004, appearing in 41 games and putting up a 4.11 ERA. He split time in 2005 between Colorado and their Triple A Colorado Springs affiliate, posting a 6.10 ERA in the major leagues.

Dohmann spent most of last season in the major leagues between the Colorado and Kansas City organizations, having been traded by the Rockies along with Ryan Shealy to the Royals in exchange for Jeremy Affeldt and Denny Bautista. With Colorado, Dohmann put up a 6.20 ERA while striking out 8.03 batters per nine innings, while walking 5.47 over the same ratio. He posted a 7.99 ERA over the final two months of the season with Kansas City, despite having a strikeout rate that was actually higher than that of his numbers in Colorado. However to accompany this came spikes in his walk rate, home run rate, and WHIP. Dohmann has a lifetime 5.74 career ERA over 125.1 major league innings, as well as a 9.19 K/9 and 1.80 K/BB. He has a 1.65 career HR/9 and a 1.63 career WHIP.

More will come on this story as details are further released, including contractual info that is presently absent. I myself will be posting my thoughts on the matter in a "Transaction Recap" opinion piece tonight.

Resources

Reliever Dohmann added [The Heater]
Scott Dohmann [The Baseball Cube]
Scott Dohmann [Fan Graphs]