The Rays have spent the first half of the season doing almost everything right, and that’s exactly why the next move matters so much.
Tampa Bay sits atop the AL East behind strong starting pitching, timely offense and a bullpen that already features Bryan Baker, whose breakout year has made him one of the team’s four All-Stars. Baker has handled the late innings so well that the Rays do not need to go shopping for a new closer. But if they want to deepen the bullpen before the August 3 MLB Trade Deadline, there’s a name that fits cleanly: Aroldis Chapman.
Chapman, the Boston Red Sox closer, has emerged as a realistic trade target, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel gave him a 90 percent chance of being dealt. They also included the Rays among the teams that would be an ideal landing spot.
That makes sense on paper and on the field. Even at 38, Chapman has been sharp, posting a 2.36 ERA with 18 saves and 35 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. He’s not living at 102 mph every night anymore, but he has adapted, and he still brings serious heat with a fastball in the high 90s.
Passan and McDaniel wrote that Chapman "doesn't throw as hard as he once did, but he has four distinct pitches now. And he's still chucking his fastball in the high 90s, which is plenty of velocity when hitters need to gear up for his slider and splitter." That kind of arsenal would slot naturally into a Tampa Bay bullpen that already has Kevin Kelly in the mix.
And that’s the key here: Chapman wouldn’t have to be the guy. Baker has earned the closer role with a 1.73 ERA and 25 saves in 28 opportunities, and that won’t change. Instead, Chapman would give Kevin Cash another high-leverage arm, one more late-inning weapon to deploy against tough matchups and one more way to shorten games to six or seven innings.
The Rays have leaned on bullpen depth in their best seasons, including 2020 and 2023, and they’ve never shied away from stacking quality relievers when a postseason push is on the table. With the deadline approaching, Chapman looks like the kind of addition that could make an already dangerous team even tougher to navigate.
It may take a bidding war to land him, but if Tampa Bay wants to push this thing as far as it can go, this is the kind of move that belongs on the board.
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