Few players are more obvious trade candidates than Aroldis Chapman. The star reliever is on a one-year contract for a Royals club that dropped to 18-44 after being swept by the Marlins this week. Barring injury, it’s a virtual lock Chapman won’t finish the season in Kansas City.
Clubs were expressing trade interest in the resurgent southpaw as early as the second week of May. Now that the calendar has flipped to June, a deal figures to come together at some point within the next seven weeks. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports that K.C. is open to a few different possibilities in a potential trade.
According to Rosenthal, the Royals are letting interested teams know they’re willing to move Chapman early in trade season if another club meets a higher ask on the prospect return. That’s an understandable tack considering the Royals’ playoff hopes have already evaporated, even in an AL Central that doesn’t have a single club with a winning record.
An openness to dealing Chapman in June a) reduces the odds of an intervening injury that torpedoes the Royals’ ability to get a deal done and b) ostensibly makes him a more appealing target for other teams. Getting three-plus months of Chapman’s services as opposed to just two months after the deadline would be an added boost for a contender.
That’s not to say a deal will actually come together imminently. Even teams that are locks to sell tend to wait to move their most notable trade candidates until the deadline is nigh. The Royals know the direction they’ll take, but many other clubs toward the middle of the standings don’t have that kind of clarity. They might not be eager to jump into the market for a rental reliever right now but could be viable suitors closer to the deadline.
Kansas City has made some early seller trades in past summers — they dealt Carlos Santana to the Mariners in late June last season and reportedly began shopping Andrew Benintendi around the same time, for instance — but they’ll have to be quite impressed with another club’s offer to move Chapman soon. The seven-time All-Star can veto any trade until June 15, an automatic CBA right afforded to all major league free agents who sign an MLB deal the preceding offseason.
Rosenthal also writes that K.C. has expressed an openness to including Chapman in a package deal with other players from the major league roster. The most straightforward candidate for such a move would be closer Scott Barlow, who’s perhaps the organization’s most valuable plausible trade chip. Barlow posted a sub-2.50 ERA over 70+ innings in both 2021 and ’22. He’s carrying a 3.52 mark through 23 frames this year but striking out a personal-high 35.1% of opposing hitters. Barlow is making $5.3MM this season and controllable via arbitration for one more year.
That extra control year affords K.C. more flexibility to hold onto Barlow than they have with Chapman. The latter signed a one-year, $3.75MM guarantee. He’s trending towards unlocking an additional $2.5MM in appearance incentives but a price tag a little north of $6MM is still eminently reasonable given his return to form.
Chapman carries a 2.95 ERA over 21 1/3 frames. His 38.5% strikeout percentage ranks sixth among relievers with 20+ innings. He’s in the top 15 in missing bats on a pitch-for-pitch basis. Chapman’s average fastball velocity is back above 99 MPH after dipping to the 97 MPH range during his final season with the Yankees. He’s doling out plenty of free passes (15.4% walk rate) but holding opponents to a .197/.319/.237 overall slash thanks to the whiffs and a complete lack of hard contact.
As is the case every summer, contending clubs will be active in ways to upgrade their bullpens. The Nationals and Tigers are reportedly getting calls on some of their relief arms, while K.C. general manager J.J. Picollo will find no shortage of interest in Chapman and Barlow. Keynan Middleton, Reynaldo López, Brad Hand, Mark Leiter Jr. and Chris Stratton are among the other relievers who might be available this summer.
nigh?
Aroldis, with the 104 mile per hour change-up?
Not sure how he can even hear anymore after shooting up his own garage from the inside.
Get some new material smacky
Just like Belsnickel
Al Yellon says the Cubs should trade for him now.
Al is stupid. Cubs aren’t a contender. Even if they could win a weak division, they won’t win a series so why trade prospects for a closer?
I think he’s the first big piece to be traded.
I definitely think the Rays and Orioles would and should have interest in Aroldis. I imagine Chappy wants to get back at the Yankees somehow, and this would definitely be the best way to get back at them for the way his Yankee career ended.
Chapman dug his own grave on his Yankees career. What is there to get back at? The dude made a conscious decision to not show up to work with no valid excuse.
As a Rays fan, I doubt they’ll have interest in Chapman and his baggage. Rays have a young team. They don’t need someone like Chapman mucking everything up in the clubhouse. They also don’t need the bad PR that Chapman would bring to the team. It’s just not a good fit.
Neander & Bendix won’t trade any of their top 5 prospects unless they can get someone else that is also young that they love.
I think it would be more fair to say Chapman might relish the chance to prove himself to the Yankees rather than get back at them. In fact, the Yankees wouldn’t be an out of the question landing spot in a trade.
@martras Chapman’s ability was never in question. He character and poor decision-making were. It’s about the worst thing you can do to your teammates, manager, and coaches when you decide to take an off day during a playoffs push. The other tattoo infection thing was also ridiculous and preventable. Zero chance he wears pinstripes again. Zero.
Chapman really is a big piece
Here you go RunDMC! Are you satisfied?
A whole article – sure! Just seemed too obvious for at least a blurb, even when speaking about 2 separate teams. Guy is the most obvious rental from last year’s FA class.
Thomas Saggese, Tekoah Roby, Marc Church for Barlow and Chapman to the rangers
Will need to be more painful than that. Especially for both of them.
This is a joke right?
Chapman’s done a nice job of rebuilding value in KC. I could see any of the NL East teams making a run at him. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Dodgers in as well
Former Royals GM is now in Rangers front office. Makes a deal for one or both seem very probable. The Rangers could definitely use some shoring up of their bullpen arms. I wonder what it would take, but I bet they could work out something without cutting too deep.
Start an auction this weekend for Chapman. Pay all his salary and offload him to the highest bidder.
Gonna be fun when the Dodgers trade for him b/c their bullpen is ass despite pulling out of a previous trade for him b/c domestic violence. I think the whole shooting up his garage while in it came after that too. Good luck to the PR Department considering the whole Trevor Bauer thing. Everyone knew Bauer was that guy and they still signed him and are now eating $40m for him to get lit up in Japan
The real issue is his abandonment of his team last year. I really think that brings his value down a bit.
I agree, Smacky. The Dodgers have enough PR drama already, they don’t need to add to it.
Its kind of funny, I said on this site months ago that Chapman would be the 2nd best reliever on the Mets next to Diaz. He would have been perfect for this team, wouldn’t have costed much. Many people on this site told me Chapman was finished and that I was wrong. Looks like I’m batting around .900 in pre-season predictions. The only thing I’ve gotten wrong so far was that I thought the Mets would win 87 games and get the third wildcard. Looks like I was wrong, they will be lucky to finish at .500 this year. 400 million dollar payroll to finish .500, if I was a fan of another team I’d laugh about and think the Mets are a dumpster fire from top to bottom. The Rays entire payroll is less then Scherzer’s and Verlander’s salaries combined. The 5th place Nationals are right behind the Mets tail right now. I’m kind of hoping we finish in last place this year so the team makes some crucial changes. It takes a massive disappointment for big changes to occur. Eppler should be the first domino to fall.. Everyone in the MLB should be laughing at the Mets right now, an all time historic failure of a team. Bye Bye Silly Eppler, don’t let the door hit you on the way out
Mets are my pick to get Chapman and double down on winning now so your 87 win prediction might still be in play.
OK, Mets fans. If KC says the price for Chapman in June is Vientos or Mauricio, do you say yes?
Mauricio? R U kidding. Vientos maybe with someone else coming with Chapman.
Mauricio? RU kidding. Vientos maybe if KC adds another player & maybe some $$.
I hello
Arrogant moron
I will give you credit where its due. I thought chapman was done and at best would be filler maybe low leverage guy if he even stuck on a major league roster. He was very wild in a lot of games last year.
Im still not sold on bringing him to a contender though as he beats up on the lesser team for sure but over the last month any decent / winning team has beat up on him. Also how much pressure is there in KC for him as he is not even the closer and the team has what a dozen wins. If he pitches and does well against a decent team or two. Im thinking this was just a payday for him and he wanted out of stressful situation as im sure a contender would have given him similar deal just on history alone.
Also to be fair im skeptical of Barlow too as the only games i have seen him in were yankee games last season and he got lit up. I never really saw him otherwise so cant make a fair judgement on him since it was 2 or 3 games. Could be the new york factor who knows.
@Roll I agree with you on Barlow, I don’t think hes anything special. Mediocre at best
The Dodgers could sure use Barlow and Chapman in our bullpen. It hasn’t been a strength this season like it has been in the past. And while it’s been a strength in the past, we’ve still been missing the kind of guys that can absolutely shut down opposing teams in the playoffs and win us a WS. Let’s get this done!
Yankees
There is absolutely no chance the Yankees would ever bring back Chapman. I would definitely be shocked.
The Yankees need starting pitching and not solely because of injury.
The Yankees real true NEED are lefty line- drive contact hitters with a little bit of pop, that are really great on defense and that steal a few bases. They will be alright with their starters especially if Rodon gets healthy.
oh, your team needs (what you described is) LHH star players, and youre waiting on rodon to be healthy? its june, and nestor just hit the il. starting pitching definitely a need for that team.
I wouldn’t be. The Yankees bullpen FIP/xFIPs don’t look great and they want to win a World Series. If Chapman can contribute to that, the Yankees aren’t going to snub their nose at it.
The royals rebuild was just a huge failure. Vinnie and witt (still a bit inconsistent but should figure it out) look good but apart from them there isn’t much on the offensive side among younger players and pitching even looks worse.
Both player development and scouting seems to have failed, especially on the pitching side.
The question is whether the new regime can salvage that or whether they will need to do another tear down.
Maybe in 2 years they need to trade Vinnie and Witt and start another full tank and rebuild cycle but for the next two years they somehow need to salvage that process.
Agreed. The Royals rebuild has really imploded. I think everybody expected the Royals talent to flood in from the minors and push the team up in the standings, but it certainly hasn’t materialized that way. They’re super young so things suddenly clicking isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but that team needs an infusion of solid veterans. A $94MM payroll is not going to cut it.
Pratto has looked good since getting recalled, But other than that yeah… All their hopes and dreams centered on all those pitchers they drafted in 18 and so far none of them aside from half a season or so from Singer have panned out.
I can see this too clearly. Aroldis is having a great season as he’s got a tremendous weight off his shoulders in a low pressure environment.
Just leave the man be.
You think HE wants to play for a losing team?
You do realize the only reason the Royals signed him is with hopes for this exact scenario: he finds some semblance of his old form, and gets flipped for a prospect or two. I’m sure Chapman also wants to be traded to a contender. He’s hoping to continue his resurgence in some high profile scenarios (culminating in playoff bonus and championship ring of course) and translate that into a 2 or 3 year free agent deal in the off-season.
Anyone who trades for Chapman has got to know he can be erratic (emotionally and on the mound). He might be a huge get, or just as easily make you crazy. I wouldn’t empty the farm for him, but for a contending team with a good system who thinks he could be a difference-maker, I suppose so. But, oh, keep the Tums close by.
dbacks will make a move for him. Need another bullpen piece bad. Dbacks are 2 players away from being a deep playoff run contender.
I would love this guy for someone like Josh Smith or a non top 30 guy in the org, but this guy screems Kyrie Irving. I never understood how a playoff team started dropping after acquiring him, but I guess team chemistry matters that much.
I just don’t want another high walk rate reliever. I would much prefer to go shell out a little more for Joe Kelly than Chapman
@deGrom
Never seen him compared to Kyrie but it’s a good analogy. Not doubt there’s talent there but a head case that will wreck your locker room.
Is there any excuse for the Royals being this bad? Feels like they have had enough time to develop their pitching.
It’s a failed rebuild all the way around. It would help if they were willing to trade Perez, but that won’t happen. The one player who is most emblematic of the KC state of affairs is Jordan Lyles who is now 0-10 with an ERA just under 7.00 He’s durable but ineffective, untradeable, and just in the first year of a 2-year contract. That’s brutal no matter how you slice it.
I’m guessing back to the Yankees.
Been there done that…..not only did he burn his bridge due to his attitude but his new found success may in fact be very fleeting…..most major leaguers can hit his everyday fastball, his slider is FUBAR, he loses the strike zone way too often and has no move to stop the running game………
@Mercenary
I can’t see that happening. Too much water under the bridge.
KC would be much better off separating Barlow and Chapman. They will likely get a better return that way.
I like how for rumors in KC it’s for a rental, and a player with one more year. For the Tigers, it’s players with 3+ years of control. Love the consistency.
Seems we’ve all agreed to just collectively forget that this is the same guy who choked his girlfriend and fired a gun in his garage in a fit of domestic violence. Welp, don’t mind me then…
The most relevant issue is that he abandoned his team last year. That should have the most effect on his value.
That said, I wouldn’t have an issue with the Astros trading for him.
Most relevant for you, not necessarily for everyone else though.
Control scares me!
His erratic nature is going to keep down the cost of getting him. He could wind up being a disruption on a contending team.
I’ve told people the Cubs needed a CP and a lh bullpen piece since May 1st.
With a WS ring and a Cubs fandom that would welcome him back, it should have already happened.
But better late than never.
He’s a ranger by the deadline.
I figure Rangers or Dbacks get Chapman and/or Barlow… only question is what can the Royals receive in return that would be of any help before Bobby Witt Jr. departs in free agency since the cheapskate owner is never going to extend him.
He’ll likely be a Met. Yanks continue to take L’s.