Aroldis Chapman

TODAY: The Sox officially announced Chapman’s extension.  The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier also has the salary breakdown, starting with a $1MM signing bonus for the closer.  Chapman will earn $12MM in 2026, and the 2027 mutual option is for $13MM with a $300K buyout.  If Chapman pitches at least 40 innings in 2026 and he passes a post-season physical, he’ll lock in a $13MM salary for 2027.

AUGUST 30: The Red Sox have agreed to an extension with left-hander Aroldis Chapman that will keep the star reliever in town for the 2026 season, according to a report from Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. Romero adds that the deal includes an option for the 2027 season, which Chris Cotillo of MassLive adds is a vesting/mutual option. Cotillo goes on to report that Chapman is guaranteed $13.3MM by the deal, and that if the Wasserman client throws enough innings to vest his 2027 option he’ll earn $26MM over two seasons.

It’s not often that a player gets a raise headed into his age-38 season, but the fact that Chapman’s salary will jump by roughly $3.5MM headed into 2026 is a testament to the sensational season the veteran closer has had during his first year in Boston. Signed to a one-year, $10.75MM guarantee last November, the eight-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion has turned back the clock to produce what is arguably the best season of his entire career and undoubtedly his most impressive performance in nearly a decade.

In 57 games for the Red Sox this year, Chapman has pitched to an otherworldly 1.04 ERA while striking out 38.7% of his opponents. That’s the lowest ERA in the majors among qualified relievers, and only Mason Miller has struck out batters at a higher clip this year. Chapman’s 2.02 SIERA, 1.83 FIP, and 2.2 fWAR are all also MLB-best totals. If the newly-unveiled Relief Pitcher of the Year award was in play for the 2025 season, Chapman would be a slam dunk to win it in the American League. As it stands, he’ll have to settle for closing out big games for what is extremely likely to be a playoff-bound Boston club down the stretch and into the postseason.

Early in Chapman’s career, it was hardly uncommon for his name to be in the conversation for the best relief arm in baseball at any given moment. The lefty made his big league debut back in 2010 as a member of the Reds and, over his first seven seasons in the majors, pitched to a dazzling 2.08 ERA with an even better 1.88 FIP and struck out 42.6% of his opponents faced. That includes a run of four consecutive All-Star appearances with Cincinnati from 2012-15 and a dominant 2016 season where he pitched to a 1.55 ERA with the Yankees and Cubs before throwing 15 2/3 innings for Chicago in the postseason en route to the first World Series championship of his career.

Upon returning to the Yankees in 2016, however, the then-29-year-old Chapman didn’t look quite as dominant. As he’s moved into his thirties, his numbers have remained strong overall but not quite reached the level he enjoyed in the first few seasons of his career. Across eight seasons from 2017 to 2024, Chapman pitched to a 3.17 ERA with a 2.94 FIP, struck out 37.7% of his opponents, and saw his walk rate creep up from 11.6% to 13.6%. After spending parts of seven years with the Yankees, Chapman bounced between the Rangers, Royals, and Pirates before returning to the AL East as a member of the Red Sox this year. Now that Chapman’s posting results in line with those he put up during his peak, his stretch of bouncing between teams every year and facing uncertainty every offseason has come to an end.

Impressive as Chapman’s 2025 campaign has been, it would hardly be reasonable for the Red Sox to assume this is what they’ll get from the lefty going forward. There’s plenty of year-to-year volatility for even the most elite relievers still in their prime, and that rings true all the more for a hurler with a middling 3.68 ERA over his last three seasons prior to this year who is now looking ahead to his age-38 season. Chapman’s age is surely why his extension is limited to just one guaranteed season. After all, even Kirby Yates’s dominant 2024 season with the Rangers wasn’t able to secure him more than a one-year guarantee from the Dodgers, while David Robertson had to wait until mid-season in order to land what he viewed as appropriate value for his services.

That aforementioned deal between Yates and Los Angeles is a particularly noteworthy comp for Chapman’s deal with the Red Sox, given that Chapman’s $13.3MM guarantee clocks in just $300K ahead of the guaranteed salary Yates is receiving from L.A. this year. While the agreement clocks in $2.7MM back of the $16MM guarantee the Phillies afforded Robertson last month, it must be noted that the deal between Robertson and Philadelphia comes with a notable asterisk: Robertson will only be paid a pro-rated portion of that deal from his signing in late July until the end of the season, which works out to just over $6MM he’ll actually be paid by the Phillies.

All of that is to say Chapman’s deal falls more or less in line with expectations for an aging closer coming off a dominant season. The specific innings threshold Chapman has to meet in order to vest his 2027 option is not known, and where that threshold ultimately falls will determine how realistic that option vesting truly is. A threshold of 50 innings, for example, would be very easy for Chapman to reach given that he’s cleared that benchmark in every full season of his career except for 2022. A 60-inning threshold would be a much taller order, as while Chapman’s 52 innings of work to date suggest he’ll have a real chance to cross that benchmark for the second consecutive season this year, his 2024 season was the first time he threw that many innings in the regular season since 2015.

Regardless of whether Chapman is sticking around for 2027 or not, his continued presence in the late-inning mix for 2026 should be huge for the Red Sox. Chapman can continue to serve as a veteran presence in a bullpen that figures to be quite young next year, with arms like Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten pairing with Chapman in the late-inning mix. One other potential x-factor is Jordan Hicks, who has at times been a dominant closer over the years but has struggled badly this year after opening the season in the San Francisco rotation. Perhaps the Red Sox hoped he could step into the closer role in 2026 when they acquired him as part of the return for Rafael Devers back in June, but Hicks has continued to struggle badly since joining the Red Sox and seems more likely to fight to hold onto his roster spot next spring than for a late-inning role. Bringing Chapman back into the fold should help lessen the club’s reliance on Hicks to bounce back, and if he does turn things around he’d form a lethal back-of-the-bullpen duo with the veteran lefty.

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner — Imagn Images

The Red Sox announced the signing of Aroldis Chapman to a one-year contract. The deal reportedly guarantees the Wasserman client $10.75MM.

Boston becomes the left-hander’s fifth different team since 2022. Chapman is no longer the elite closer he was during his peak with the Reds and Yankees. He’s still an effective, if somewhat volatile, reliever despite scattershot command. He turned in a 3.79 ERA over 61 2/3 innings for the Pirates this year. Signed as a setup option in front of David Bednar, Chapman recorded 22 holds before taking over as closer for the struggling Bednar late in the season. He picked up 14 saves, his highest total in three years, and only surrendered five leads.

Even as he enters his age-37 season, Chapman is one of the league’s hardest-throwing relievers. He averaged 97.8 MPH on his four-seam fastball and 99.8 MPH on his sinker. While Chapman is no longer in a league of his own in terms of velocity, that’s rare arm speed from the left side. Among southpaws with at least five innings pitched, only Jose A. Ferrer and Gregory Soto threw their four-seamers harder on average. Chapman’s sinker velocity led all southpaws and ranked fourth in MLB overall, trailing Emmanuel Clase, Justin Martinez and Seth Halvorsen.

That high-octane stuff continues to lead to plenty of strikeouts. Chapman fanned 37% of batters faced with Pittsburgh. Among relievers with 20+ innings, Chapman ranked eighth in strikeout rate. His 14.7% walk percentage was the ninth-highest mark among that group. Fewer than half of his plate appearances ended with a ball in play. There’ll be a lot of free passes, but Chapman’s stuff is good enough that he still manages to work out of trouble more often than not.

This is the second bullpen pickup of the offseason for chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and the Boston front office. They also brought in Justin Wilson last month to work in the middle innings. There could be room for one more addition with four Sox relievers hitting free agency. They’re expected to let Kenley Jansen walk and could also lose Chris Martin, Luis García and Lucas Sims. Liam Hendriks should be back from Tommy John surgery and is the favorite to replace Jansen as Alex Cora’s closer. Rule 5 pick Justin Slaten should be their top setup option from the right side. Cam Booser and Brennan Bernardino, who had been their top internal lefties, profile as middle relievers rather than high-leverage arms.

Chapman did not place among MLBTR’s Top 50 free agents. That said, he was one of the best available lefties for teams that didn’t want to play at the top of the market for Tanner Scott. He earns a very slight raise relative to last winter, when he signed with Pittsburgh for $10.5MM.

The move brings the Red Sox’s estimated payroll, including arbitration projections, to roughly $148MM (courtesy of RosterResource). Boston is up to approximately $181MM in luxury tax obligations. They’re $60MM shy of the base tax threshold. CEO Sam Kennedy indicated the Sox could exceed the threshold, one of myriad comments from team brass signaling a big offseason. There’ll be a lot more to come from Breslow and company, who are one of five teams known to be involved on Juan Soto and have been tied to every top-end free agent starting pitcher.

Chris Cotillo of MassLive first reported the Red Sox and Chapman had made progress on a deal. Mike Rodriguez confirmed there was a deal in place. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the contract terms. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.