Over the offseason, Boston Red Sox fans weren't exactly thrilled about the signing of 37-year-old reliever Aroldis Chapman.
The longtime Reds and Yankees closer has been one of the most dominant relievers of his era — he's got a career 2.60 ERA, 344 saves, and 1,279 strikeouts in 16 seasons — but he hasn't been an All-Star since 2021, and his last vintage season came back in 2019 (2.21 ERA, 85 strikeouts in 57.0 innings). His 14 saves with the Pirates last year were the most he had accrued in a season since 2021.
However, the flame-throwing lefty is turning the clock back in Boston this year. His average fastball velocity of 99.1 mph ranks in the 99th percentile among all qualified pitchers, and he's generating chases, whiffs, and strikeouts as well as anyone.
He's the surefire closer for the Red Sox, especially with Justin Slaten and Liam Hendricks currently on the injured list. However, the team, sitting at 30-34, currently resides in fourth place in the highly competitive AL East, and they are 4.0 games back of the final Wild Card spot in the American League.
If the team doesn't right the ship in June, reality will set in come July. And once that happens, the Red Sox shouldn't hesitate to deal Chapman.
Aroldis Chapman can return valuable talent if Red Sox are sellers at the trade deadline
Aroldis Chapman 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/ynIqal93fj
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 14, 2025
Chapman has been traded a number of times in his career. The Reds sent him to the Yankees prior to his contract year in 2016, who flipped him just a few months later to the Cubs, where he won perhaps the most famous World Series of all time. Years later, the Royals traded the southpaw to the Rangers, where Chapman won his second ring.
Beyond his stellar performance this season — 1.80 ERA (2.55 FIP), nine saves, and 33 strikeouts in 27 appearances (25.0 innings) — he's also a lockdown postseason reliever. In 44 playoff appearances, he's only got 10 saves, though his 2.37 ERA and 33.7% strikeout rate paint the picture of a reliable late-inning arm.
As an older veteran on a one-year contract (with about half of his $10.75 million salary remaining), Chapman isn't going to return quite what he once did in his prime.
The Royals received prospect Roni Cabrera and starter Cole Ragans in return for a half-season of Chapman in 2023, and the southpaw is performing even better and functioning as a primary closer this year.
Ragans, who has turned into one of the better starters in the AL, was a high-upside play by the Royals in 2023, but that's the kind of angle the Red Sox can take in a trade. If there's an MLB-ready arm that's currently crowded out of a contender's rotation, Boston could acquire a long-term piece in exchange for a closer who is set to become a free agent in five months.
It's a shame that 2025 hasn't gone according to plan for the Red Sox, because Chapman has been better than even the most optimistic prognosticators could have guessed. If he isn't going to be closing out games for them in October, they might as well get some value by sending him to a team that can take him to the postseason.