There's a lot to like about the 2025 Boston Red Sox. The team's lineup was already very good, and they added a player who should fit in perfectly, Alex Bregman. Their rotation was a major question mark, but by adding Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler over the offseason, it could now be one of the best in the American League. The team's bullpen, however, is iffy at best, and Aroldis Chapman being named the team's closer by manager Alex Cora proves just that.
“I think Chappy has been amazing,” Cora said. “But if Corey Seager leads off the eighth, he could be used in the eighth. And there's certain times he's gonna pitch the eighth, but most [often], he'll pitch the ninth inning.”
Cora hinted that Chapman could be used in the eighth inning in certain moments, but for the most part, he'll be the team's closer. If we were in 2015, this would be a no-brainer. Even if we were in 2021, the move would make sense. In 2025, however, the Red Sox are putting themselves in a rough position by giving Chapman the ninth-inning duties.
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Red Sox will soon regret decision to hand closing duties to Aroldis Chapman
To be fair, it's not as if the team had tons of other options to take over the closer role. Liam Hendriks was once a dominant closer, but he has just five innings under his belt over the last two seasons, and none of them came last year. I'd argue that Justin Slaten is the best reliever in this bullpen, but he doesn't have much late-game experience. Given the arms that they have turning to Chapman makes some sense, but it's bound to fail based on how he has performed in late-game situations recently.
Chapman appeared in 68 games last season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and had outings that began in the seventh inning, eighth inning, ninth inning, and extra innings. In the seventh inning, he posted a 1.69 ERA in 12 appearances and 10.2 innings of work. His ERA sat above 4.00 in the other innings. In save situations, he had a 3.96 ERA. In non-save situations, that ERA dipped down to 3.52.
In the 2023 season, we saw similar kinds of production from Chapman. His overall 3.09 ERA in 61 appearances was solid, but his numbers in the eighth inning (1.95 ERA) didn't compare to those in the ninth (4.15 ERA). His numbers in save situations (4.81 ERA) looked a lot worse than his numbers in non-save situations (1.85 ERA).
In addition to his lackluster numbers in pressure situations, Chapman has developed a pretty serious walk problem. This past season, he had a 14.4 percent walk rate, putting him in the first percentile according to Baseball Savant. The season prior saw him put up a 14.5 percent walk rate, good for the second percentile. Chapman has great stuff and still strikes a ton of guys out, but closers who walk the ballpark tend to have lots of trouble finishing games.
Again, Chapman was one of the great relievers in the game for quite a while, but it isn't 2015 or 2020 anymore. Even Red Sox fans seemingly looked forward to facing Chapman by the end of his stint with the New York Yankees. Now, it's Yankees fans who will get to experience this joy. If the Red Sox weren't going to bring Kenley Jansen back, they had to do better than Chapman. Their failure to do so could hurt them, especially if it takes them a while to adapt to what teams already know.