Here’s a quick take
By John Sickels / minorleagueball.com
Thursday night the Minnesota Twins traded veteran relief pitcher Fernando Rodney to the Oakland Athletics for minor league prospect Dakota Chalmers. Who is Dakota Chalmers? Let’s look.
Dakota Chalmers, RHP: The Athletics drafted Chalmers in the third round in 2015 from high school in Cumming, Georgia, where he showed first-round stuff with a mid-90s fastball but worried scouts with his mechanics and command. He hasn’t pitched much the last couple of years, limited to 29 innings in 2017 in Low-A (4.34 ERA, 47/29 K/BB) and just five innings in Low-A this year. He missed part of ‘17 with personal issues and has spent almost all of ‘18 on the disabled list with an undisclosed injury.
Chalmers is listed at 6-3, 175, age 21. He throws hard and has maintained an excellent strikeout pace at the lower levels but his walk rates are much too high. He is still trying to iron out his delivery. At this point he is a Grade C prospect, a guy with a nice arm but a huge set of questions.
This might not seem like much of a return for Rodney, who is still an effective reliever, but at age 41 Fernando is literally almost twice as old as Chalmers. Getting anyone of value in return is a win, even a speculative arm like Chalmers.