Veteran reliever Aroldis Chapman and the Boston Red Sox are in agreement on a one-year, $10.75 million contract, sources told ESPN, bolstering a Boston bullpen in need of a power left-handed arm.
The deal, which is pending the completion of a physical, adds the hard-throwing Chapman to a bullpen that finished 24th in ERA last season and went into the winter prioritizing late-inning left-handed help.
Chapman, who turns 37 before the coming season, posted a picture of himself in a Red Sox cap on social media.
Let's go! pic.twitter.com/MhJ64TN6Lq
— Aroldis Chapman (@AChapman_105) December 3, 2024
In 61⅔ innings with Pittsburgh last season, Chapman posted a 3.79 ERA and struck out 98 while walking 39. With an average fastball of 98 mph that topped out at 105, Chapman has maintained top-end velocity and an elite strikeout rate into what will be his 16th major league season.
The Red Sox will be Chapman's seventh team, and he returns to the American League East, where he spent seven years with the New York Yankees. While Chapman hasn't closed since 2021, he could find himself in the mix to do so with right-hander Liam Hendriks, who is returning from Tommy John surgery, as well as right-hander Justin Slaten, who impressed as a rookie last season.
Over his career, Chapman has a 2.63 ERA in 760 innings with 1,246 strikeouts. His strikeout rate of 14.8 per nine innings is the highest in baseball history, nearly three-quarters of a strikeout ahead of Craig Kimbrel.
Chapman, who accepted a 30-game suspension in 2016 under MLB's domestic violence policy after an incident in which he allegedly fired a gun inside his house, was traded from Cincinnati to the Yankees a few months prior. He was dealt at the trade deadline that year to the Chicago Cubs, with whom he won a World Series, then returned to New York before stops in Kansas City, Texas and Pittsburgh.