Aroldis Chapman Brings 'Electric' Fastball to Texas Rangers

Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young said Aroldis Chapman's penchant for strikeouts was a key reason for the trade.

Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young had a press conference about the MLB Draft on 4 p.m. Friday. His scouting director, Kip Fagg, did most of the talking.

About 90 minutes later, the baseball found out why Young was preoccupied.

Young fired the first significant shot in the ramp-up to the Aug. 1 trade deadline by dealing pitcher Cole Ragans and minor-league outfielder Roni Cabrera for Kansas City Royals reliever Aroldis Chapman, a seven-time All-Star who helped the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series.

Young hopes that Chapman will be in Arlington on Saturday and active for the second game of the series against the Houston Astros. 

The Rangers have been scouting Chapman this season and Young said the staff believes he’s recaptured the stuff that made him one of the game’s best closers.

“What we’re seeing is a pitcher who’s really back to the way he pitched a couple of years ago,” Young said. “The fastball has been electric.”

To that end, Chapman has thrown 149 pitches this season at 100 mph or better per Statcast, third most in baseball. One of those pitches was 103.8 mph and set a Royals record.

Chapman is 4-2 with two saves and a 2.45 ERA in 31 games for the Royals. He hasn’t been Kansas City's primary closer, but Young said the Rangers didn’t necessarily make the trade to slot the left-hander at closer. That will be up to Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. 

Young did indicate the team wants to start by keeping Chapman in his current set-up role and let matchups determine if he works in a save situation.

Chapman has 317 career saves and the sixth-highest save percentage in MLB history (88.8).

But Chapman gives the Rangers something they need now — swing-and-miss stuff.

The bullpen has the second-fewest strikeouts in baseball (247) entering Friday’s game with Houston. This bullpen it not a big strikeout unit with one notable exception — Josh Sborz. His whiff rate is 42.8 percent and he has 45 strikeouts for the season.

Sborz’s swing-and-miss rate is the third best in baseball. Chapman’s is second at 43.4 percent. Chapman’s career strikeout-per-nine-inning rate of 14.76 is best in baseball history.

Young said the team saw the appeal in adding that to the bullpen.

“Outs are outs, and we want players that can get outs,” Young said. “But the way he gets them through strikeouts is very important and certainly factored into our evaluation.”

So did Chapman’s unceremonious end to his 2022 season with the New York Yankees. He was left off the roster for the 2022 AL Division Series when he missed a mandatory workout. He signed with the Royals on a one-year deal.

Young said the team did extensive work to determine if that would be a problem in the Rangers clubhouse, and he believes it will not be.

“In this scenario, understanding what transpired, we’re very comfortable with who the player is,” Young said.

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