Doyle Lafayette Alexander (born September 4, 1950) is an American former pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, and Detroit Tigers.

[3] He was acquired along with Bob O'Brien, Sergio Robles and Royle Stillman by the Baltimore Orioles from the Dodgers for Frank Robinson and Pete Richert at the Winter Meetings on December 2, 1971.

In the ALCS, however, he went 0–1 with an 8.71 earned run average in two starts as the Blue Jays fell to the Kansas City Royals in seven games.

[7] A slow start the next year resulted in Alexander being traded[8] to the Atlanta Braves, who dealt him in turn to the contending Detroit Tigers midway through the 1987 season for a then unknown minor-leaguer named John Smoltz.

Alexander (and Smoltz) have been cited many times since 1987 because the Tigers-Braves trade was indicative of a deal in which each team sought something different and received it: the Tigers wanted Alexander to bolster them in the short-term (which he did by helping them reach the playoffs in 1987 and pitching well for Detroit in 1988) and the Braves wanted Smoltz to contribute to their long-term rebuilding plans (which he did by having a long Hall of Fame career and contributing to Atlanta's rise as one of MLB's most enduringly successful franchises since 1991).