You don’t want to bury the lead with Aroldis Chapman the way he’s been burying sinkers and 100 mph fastballs in the strike zone all season long. So here it is: Chapman isn’t just the best and most successful closer in baseball this year. He is pitching like one of the best ever over the past few months.
Chapman, at age 37, hasn’t just helped pitch the Red Sox back into contention in the American League East and in the Wild Card race, he has done something else across the past few months, which means pitch himself into the Cy Young Award conversation with aces like Tarik Skubal and his teammate Garrett Crochet. Chapman, who bounced around to the Royals, Rangers and Pirates after leaving the Yankees a few years ago, has pitched like that kind of star.
Since the end of May especially, he has been as much a force as any pitcher or hitter in baseball, and he absolutely earned the contract extension the Red Sox just gave him. And he may very well be pitching his way into the middle of another conversation, the one about him possibly making the Hall of Fame someday.
Going into this weekend’s Red Sox-Diamondbacks series in Phoenix, Chapman’s last earned run allowed was a home run to J.T. Realmuto on July 23. Since then, he’s had 16 appearances, pitched 13 2/3 innings, struck out 17, given up just four walks and has faced 45 batters without giving up a hit. It actually gets better: Since May 27, Chapman has given up one earned run. In that stretch, he’s pitched 33 innings, struck out 49 and walked just six.
And here is what he just did in August, on his way to essentially pitching a month-long, 11-inning no-hitter: Chapman faced 34 batters last month, retired 33 and allowed one walk along the way. It added up to a 0.09 WHIP for the month and, yeah, a 0.00 ERA.
So much has been made of the impact that Roman Anthony, the Red Sox gifted rookie, has made on the team’s season, along with the immense presence of Alex Bregman both on and off the field. Crochet has established himself as one of the true aces of the sport, without question. The Sox traded for Crochet and signed Bregman to a free-agent contract. Those were supposed to be the most important acquisitions from last winter. But none has mattered more to the Red Sox than what felt like an under-the-radar signing of Chapman, who had a 3.79 ERA and 14 saves in 68 appearances for the Pirates last season.
Yankees fans will always remember the season-ending home run Chapman gave up to Jose Altuve in the 2019 American League Championship Series, and another one to Mike Brosseau of the Rays the very next year — Game 5 of a Yankees-Rays ALDS — that effectively ended another Yankees season. But around that, Chapman has a career 2.37 ERA in the postseason, has 10 saves in 44 appearances and helped pitch the Cubs to the 2016 World Series, emptying his personal tank along the way to get that done. As worn down as he was by Game 7 of that Series against Cleveland, the Cubs wouldn’t have won without him. Chapman even pitched nine times in the postseason for the Rangers when they were winning the Series two years ago.
He first showed up in the big leagues for the Reds in 2010. Now, in his own late innings, he is greater in the late innings than he has ever been before.
This is what Craig Breslow, Boston’s chief baseball officer, told reporters after Chapman’s contract extension:
“I think that’s what you would point to when people say, ‘How has this guy been able to throw 100 miles an hour for 15 years now and just continue to have a successful season after a successful season. So when you think about making a bet on someone to be successful later in their career, you look at the way that they keep themselves in shape and prepare and feel pretty good about this one.”
Chapman really can still throw it 100. But he is more of a strike thrower than ever before, with both the fastball and his sinker. It seems he has been ahead in the count all season long. It’s why the Red Sox didn’t want to lose him and Chapman made it quite clear to them that he very much wanted to remain in Boston.
“The chemistry that we have here is unique,” Chapman himself said of the 2025 Red Sox. “We’re very together on and off the field. Also the coaching staff and the medical staff and the trainers made the decision easier for me wanting to stay here.”
Jonathan Papelbon, as a kid, had an ERA of 0.92 out of the bullpen in 2006. When the Sox won the 2013 World Series, Koji Uehara had a 1.09 ERA, striking out 101 batters in 74 1/3 innings. So Chapman, who is at 1.00 right now, is in one more conversation in Boston, like those guys out of the Red Sox bullpen and out of the past like that. He’s having himself a regular season for the ages with less than a month to go. Looking ageless in the process.
