Twins trade Fernando Rodney to the Athletics

Remember when the Twins made and astonishing five trades before the trade deadline, and I said, hey, it’s okay, the Twins held on to Fernando Rodney? About that...

The team announced today that they traded Rodney to the Athletics for a minor league right-hander named Dakota Chalmers.

See, the “trade deadline” is actually the “non-waiver trade deadline”, meaning teams can still make waiver trades until the end of August. Teams can put all of their players on revocable waivers (and they usually do), and if another team claims a player, the two teams have 48 hours to work out a deal for the player, or the team can revocable the player and keep him. If a player goes through all other 29 teams unclaimed, then the team that has him can trade him to anyone. You probably already knew all that, though, because you Twinkie Town readers are smart.

Obviously, Rodney was traded via the waiver method. The 41-year-old right hander is doing fairly decently, having picked up 25 saves with a 3.09 ERA over 43.2 innings. Of course, he’s also blown six saves and lost two games, and made things prreettttyyy interesting most of the time he’s on the mound.

In exchange for Rodney, the Twins got righty pitcher Dakota Chalmers. Chalmers, 21, made two appearances earlier this year for the Low-A Beloit Snappers before being placed on the disabled list, and he’s been there ever since. I’m not sure what the injury is, but I guess that seems bad [Edit: Yeah, Tommy John]. Chalmers also missed much of 2017 due to a non-baseball related matter, but in the 29.0 innings he did pitch in Low-A that year, the kid held a 4.34 ERA with an eye-popping 47 strikeouts.

Here’s a video:

So the kid sounds like he might be a bit of a reclamation project, which I guess is a fine get for Fernando Rodney. The Twins, of course, will also lose Rodney’s $4.25 million team option for 2019.

Enjoy the Fernando Rodney Experience, Oakland.