MLB Trades: Aroldis Chapman and 4 other trade deadline movers that aged like milk in the sun
The Texas Rangers were among baseball's most active teams at the trade deadline, acquiring Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery, Chris Stratton, and Austin Hedges to try and help push them toward their first postseason berth since 2016. Those pickups have been good ones for this Rangers team, but the addition they made one month prior is the one that has Rangers fans unhappy.
Texas tried improving what was a subpar bullpen by adding Aroldis Chapman in a trade with the Royals. Chapman was having a resurgent year with KC after really flaming out in New York with the Yankees. Chapman was back to throwing triple digits consistentl, and that's remained the case in Texas, but his struggles in save situations have been incredibly frustrating.
Chapman has a solid 3.32 ERA with the Rangers, but he's blown three of his five save opportunities and has also taken two losses in his 22 appearances with the club. Being the main reason the team blows and/or loses games is not what Texas had in mind when acquiring Chapman. Even with his struggles, that's not the worst part of the trade.
The Rangers trade for Aroldis Chapman has aged like milk in the sun
As if Chapman having his struggles and the Rangers bullpen still having massive issues wasn't bad enough, the Rangers are now watching one of their old pitchers blossom in Kansas City.
The trade looked like a Rangers fleece at the time with Kansas City giving up just Cole Ragans and 17-year-old prospect Roni Cabrera in the deal. Ragans had obvious talent but had an ERA over 5.00 in parts of three seasons with the Rangers while Cabrera wasn't much of anything as a prospect. Cabrera has played decently well in the Royals system, but it's Ragans who has blossomed into a budding star for the lowly Royals.
The southpaw has made eight starts with the Royals and has a 1.51 ERA in 47.2 innings of work. He's struck out 63 batters as a Royal and has allowed just one home run. This is a pitcher who had an ERA of 5.92 in 17 appearances with Texas this season and had no role in their future plans. Now, he looks like a future Kansas City ace.
Since the trade deadline, Ragans has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball. He has a 1.48 in his seven starts which leads the majors among qualified starters. He also leads in FIP (1.46) and strikeouts (60). He won the AL Pitcher of the Month for August, and started September by allowing just one hit with seven strikeouts in six innings against the White Sox. This is a trade nobody could've possibly predicted winding up this bad for Texas, and it's just the first of five bad ones on this list.