The Minnesota Twins took a flyer on Hansel Robles after a disappointing 2020 season. After having a bounce-back season this year, what is his value ahead of the MLB Trade Deadline?

In case you missed it, we recently wrote about J.A. Happ’s value ahead of the deadline.

Robles was signed to a one-year deal with the Twins and has been an OK addition. There are games in which he’s dominant and others where he flat out loses ball games.

Last season with the Los Angeles Angels, Robles went 0-2 with an ERA of 10.26 in 18 games. This season in 43 games with the Twins, he’s 3-4 and has an ERA of 4.25. When he signed with Minnesota, the hope was he would rebound and pitch as well as he did in 2018 and 2019. In those seasons he had an ERA of 2.97 and 2.48.

Even if his ERA hovered around 3.00, the Twins would have been satisfied with their one-year flyer on Robles. It wasn’t the best start for him either, pitching with an ERA of 4.82 through April. However, he battled back and put together some better relief work. He was able to lower his ERA to 2.76 by June 20.

He pitched well in May and June but has found himself struggling in July. In 7.2 innings, he has an ERA of 7.04 and has allowed six earned runs.

Despite this season being an up-and-down rollercoaster, there will be a team that’ll take a flyer on Robles just like Minnesota did. He’s had success before and his velocity hasn’t changed since those successful 2018-19 seasons. At 30 years old, he’s still throwing fastballs in the upper 90s and at times, triple digits.

A pitcher that can throw that fast will almost seemingly find himself on a roster. A team that trades for him will fantasize about the idea of him throwing heaters in high leverage situations.

It wouldn’t cost a team any major assets to acquire the reliever. He’s on a one-year deal worth $2 million. At the end of the season, if it doesn’t work out for the team that trades for him, they won’t be locked down to a long-term contract.

If a team were to trade for Robles, they’ll be getting a pitcher who tosses upper 90s fastballs like this and occasionally a weird leg kick timing.

Minnesota should trade Robles at the trade deadline because he’s on a one-year deal and has been inconsistent this season. The team might as well cash in on any asset they can acquire, even if it’s a Low-A prospect with low upside. Making this move allows the Twins to call up one of their prospects in Double or Triple-A