Aroldis Chapman is already back in trade chatter barely two weeks into the season. On April 16, a column of contender trade ideas put the Red Sox left-hander in a one-for-one mock deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks that would send him to Arizona for left-hander Kohl Drake.
The piece was framed as speculation, not a move Boston has made. But it landed because Chapman is not just any reliever on an expiring-style track: the Red Sox were 7-11 on April 16, the American League’s best record belonged to the Minnesota Twins at 11 wins, and Boston’s early slide has already made the roster look less stable than it did when the club re-signed Chapman to a one-year, $13 million deal after last season.
Joel Reuter outlined the mock swap directly, writing, “To ARI: LHP Aroldis Chapman,” and “To BOS: LHP Kohl Drake (Tier 5). Once upon a time, the Royals turned a two-month rental of Aroldis Chapman into a controllable young starter named Cole Ragans in a 2023 trade deadline deal with the Rangers. Could the Red Sox follow a similar blueprint this summer?” The comparison matters because it points to the way a short-term bullpen piece can be converted into a longer-term arm if a contender decides to buy and a club out of the race chooses to sell.
Chapman gave Boston real value last year. He posted a 1.17 ERA, a 0.70 WHIP and 12.5 strikeouts per nine innings with 32 saves in 67 appearances, one of the best seasons of his career. That kind of performance explains why his name is already surfacing in deadline talk, even though his contract includes a $13 million mutual option and a $300,000 buyout for 2027.
The tension in the idea is obvious. Boston still has months before the trade deadline, and April 16 is too early to treat a 7-11 start as a verdict on the season. But early losses shorten patience quickly, and a reliever with Chapman’s track record can become exactly the type of chip that teams dangle if they decide a stronger future return is worth more than a short-term arm. For now, the Red Sox are in the kind of place where one bad week can make a mock trade feel less mock than it did the day before.
