Minnesota Twins: Fernando Rodney traded to the Oakland Athletics for RHP Dakota Chalmers

The Minnesota Twins completed another trade as they try to sell off their short term assets with Fernando Rodney the most recent to go.

The Minnesota Twins have completed their sixth trade of the season as they send their closer Fernando Rodney to the Oakland Athletics. In return, the Twins will be receiving right-handed pitching prospect Dakota Chalmers.

Out of all the trades that could happen in August, this just didn’t feel like one that would happen. While Rodney has frustrated many Twins fans with the way in which he would put runners on base while trying to close out games, he had a chance to be of value to the Twins in 2019. With an affordable $4.25 million contract it just seemed to make sense he would be back in Minnesota.

As the Twins proved with the Ryan Pressly trade, if you can trade an expendable reliever for prospects that is something that a major league team should generally do. So when the Athletics claimed Rodney off of waivers it made sense to see what kind of deal could be made. As the Athletics push for a playoff run, they will take on all of Rodney’s salary and send the Twins Chalmers in return.

More from Puckett's Pond

• Minnesota Twins: You Spin Me Right Round, Right Round
• Minnesota Twins: What happens next at Shortstop?
• Minnesota Twins: Grading the Twins’ Joey Gallo signing
• Minnesota Twins: 4 Possible Trade Chips not named Kepler or Arraez
• Minnesota Twins: After missing out on Correa, what comes next?

Chalmers was drafted as a prep pitcher by the A’s in the 3rd round of the 2015 MLB Draft. He has struggled with injury and is currently out for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. It seems strange to bring back in a trade a pitcher who is hurt, but as pointed out by Mike Berardino, pitching coach Garvin Alston is familiar with Chalmers from his time with the Athletics.

It isn’t just injuries that raise questions for Chalmers and his baseball future. Along with past and current injuries, he has also struggled with some “personal issues” in the past as pointed out by Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs on Twitter. On the mound, Chalmers can throw his fastball for 93-96 and even up to 97, but he needs to learn to control his pitchers better.

Don Schulze who has been Chalmers’ pitching coach in Beloit said about the pitcher that his stuff is great but he sometimes tries to throw too hard.

So while there isn’t much to look to for Chalmers in the way of minor league results as he has only pitched 34.0 innings in the past two seasons. This is a moment where the eye test and some scouting is clearly driving this decision to acquire Chalmers. The Twins front office must see a very good arm that they can teach control to once he is with their coaches.

The Twins pitching throughout the system has only grown in depth and quality over the past several weeks. It will be interesting to see which arms in the Twins farm system eventually make it to the majors some day. In the short term, the Twins will need to figure out the new pecking order in the bullpen.