The Boston Red Sox have announced Aroldis Chapman as their closer, edging out Liam Hendriks for the job. The report comes from Alex Speier of The Boston Globe.
Red Sox fans once rooted adamantly against Chapman when he was a member of the New York Yankees (2016-22) but now they will rely upon him to finish games.
It has been a bit of a mixed bag for Chapman over the back nine of his career. His last all-star nod came in 2021 with the Yankees. Since then, he has shown serious signs of decline. Over Chapman’s last four seasons and 212 and 2/3 innings, he has a 3.60 ERA, a 1.326 WHIP, and just 59 saves.
These are respectable numbers, but like everyone, Father Time seems to be catching up to the 37-year-old Chapman.
Boston thinks he still has something in the tank, however, as represented by the one-year, $10.75 million contract he signed this offseason. He has not pitched much this spring (seven and 1/3 innings), but a 2.45 ERA and 1.091 WHIP, along with that patented fastball/slider combination, were enough to win the role.
Hendriks, who had even admitted Chapman was deserving of the closer spot, was racked for seven earned runs over six and 1/3 spring training innings. He is still in line for high-leverage opportunities, but it is Chapman who will handle the bulk of the save chances.
Chapman can be a bit nerve-wracking with his tendency to let the leadoff guy on or struggle to find the strike zone, but when he’s on, he still has some of the most devastating stuff in the Majors.
Chapman has not recorded 30 saves since that ’21 season in New York, but with Boston’s talented roster and suddenly not-so-scary AL East, he could approach that total.
With his MLB days winding down, expect a hungry Chapman as he pursues a third ring and tries to book his ticket to Cooperstown.
