A few weeks ago, I wrote an article saying the Minnesota Twins decision to trade away Taylor Rogers looked awful after they blew up so many games against the Cleveland Guardians.
Fast forward to a few weeks later, Taylor Rogers has looked awful since I wrote the article. Rogers has allowed 17 runs in 19.1 innings in June and July which has nowhere near been great but it’s not how Rogers has played that makes the trade looks awful. It’s what Rogers became: Josh Hader.
Minnesota Twins missed out even more in retrospect
The Padres made a stunner of a trade Monday morning, acquiring Josh Hader from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a four player package from the Padres which included Rogers and Dinelson Lamet. While the return might seem huge based on numbers and performance, Rogers is a free agent after the season and Dinelson Lamet was not frankly performing well in the majors at all since his 2020 season and was spending most of his 2022 season in Padres minor league systems as a reliever.
While Hader may look like he hasn’t had a good season with his 4.34 overall ERA, it was his usually impressive year as Hader had posted a 1.82 ERA and a 1.94 FIP before allowing ten earned runs in 4.1 innings since July 13, including a miserable outing against the Giants where he gave up six alone while just amassing an out.
Based on Hader’s performance before July 13th and his past performances for the Brewers, it stands to reason this is only a bump in the road for one of the best players in baseball for the past couple of years.
It isn’t quite fair to say Derek Falvey and Minnesota Twins made an awful mistake trading Rogers based on his last two months with the Padres. However, you do have to admit the trade does look a lot more worst than it already was when you look closer.
On one hand the Twins’ pitching has even been more ungodly awful than it was in 2021 and the players they got have not performed. Chris Paddack will miss not only this season but potentially parts of next season too from another Tommy John surgery in the young man’s career. Emilio Pagan has been truly god awful, posting 4.75 ERA in 38 appearances as Twins fans want him to be thrown into the sun, never to be heard from again, based on his performances and the number of games he has cost the team.
Then you look at the other hand and on the A.J. Preller and Padres side of things where they were able to turn Pagan and Paddack into Rogers then turned made a package centered around Rogers in a deal for one of the best closers in baseball in Hader.
While look it isn’t quite apples to oranges but the Rogers trade still does not look great for the Twins. They really have no set closer at the moment, they’re in a tight battle for the AL Central against the Cleveland Guardians and Chicago White Sox and their division lead has dropped from 1.5 from the Guardians and a 5.5 game lead from the third place White Sox at the start of July to now only having a one game lead against the Guardians and now a meager two game lead against the third place White Sox.
Would keeping Rogers have helped their bullpen? Maybe. Would the Padres have gotten Hader without putting in Rogers? Probably too. But the trade happened and the Padres no doubt have benefitted more from the Taylor Rogers trade than the Minnesota Twins have.
The decision by Falvey to trade Rogers hours before the start of Opening Day could cost the Minnesota Twins not only the AL Central division title, but a postseason appearance.