Oakland Athletics’ Prospect Dakota Chalmers Making Major Progress In Minors
Checking In On Oakland Athletics’ Prospect Dakota Chalmers
The Oakland Athletics have four more years of Sonny Gray before his anticipated free agent year in 2020. With the bulk of the A’s trades and draft picks going toward restocking the organization’s infield, have the A’s done enough to prepare for Sonny’s departure? The answer could be yes.
Third round draft pick Dakota Chalmers was selected out of North Forsyth High School in Georgia. He was the only one of the A’s first ten picks that was drafted right out of high school, which shows that they are going to invest time into developing this young but high draft pick. His scouting report explains that he has a very intimidating fastball that touches 98 MPH, which is incredible given that he is only 18 years old. However, scouts have also expressed concern over his delivery, which they think contains too much effort. The A’s are going to take a chance on Chalmers’ ability to refine his mechanics as he advances through their system.
Chalmers is getting his first shot at professional baseball in Mesa, Arizona, where he pitches for the Rookie League AZL Athletics. The AZL A’s appear to be giving him very specific tasks in each start to help him clean up his delivery, as he only pitches for two innings in each start. This may also be a precaution to protect the arm of a very young pitcher who throws incredibly hard.
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The Athletics are going to reap the benefits from this careful approach, however. Chalmers has shown a tendency to have trouble working the count in his favor. Through ten starts, he has pitched 18.2 innings. In that time, he has walked 16 batters. That gives him a BB/9 ratio of a slightly painful 7.74. But remember, he is a recent high school graduate who just moved across the country and is having professionals asking him to totally revamp his delivery for (probably) the first time in his life. He gets to walk a few people.
Chalmers’ upside is a lot more hopeful than his downside is worrisome. He owns a 7.26 K/9 ratio as well. He has put a lot of people on base, but he has kept his ERA down to 2.89 because of his impeccable ability to get the strikeout. Although it is totally unfair to compare Major League strikeouts to Rookie League strikeouts, just consider the fact that Sonny Gray’s K/9 ratio is 7.44 and Chris Bassitt’s is 6.91. If Chalmers’ rate of improvement keeps up with the level of competition at each level, the A’s will be adding a nasty strikeout pitcher to their rotation when he is promoted to the majors.
And the good news for A’s fans is that whatever the coaches in Arizona are telling Chalmers is working. Last Tuesday’s start against the AZL Indians marked the first time that Chalmers completed a full two innings without walking a batter, and he only walked one while striking out four in Sunday’s start against the AZL Reds. In the minors, teams look for upward trends, and the A’s have to like the trend they see in Chalmers’ performance.
Make no mistake, there are many years left in his development. The A’s will not expect him to make the majors until about the 2019 season. That will be Sonny Gray’s final year in Oakland before free agency, but the A’s might be ready to call a new young pitcher their ace after that season.