As Opening Day roster battles rage on, Aroldis Chapman appears to be the Red Sox next closer

The Red Sox Opening Day roster will begin to take shape after the team makes a significant number of cuts on Wednesday. The Sox have 51 players in camp, which includes 14 non-roster invitees.

Once a large portion of players are reassigned to minor league camp, it’ll lend some insight as to how the Red Sox are approaching some of the roster battles.

Boston hasn't settled on who will play second base and they also have another glaring hole. Alex Cora has not yet named a closer but has had candidates this spring vying for the role.

Boston made a handful of moves during the offseason to rebuild their bullpen with new additions in left-handers Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson, Matt Moore, Jovani Morán, and Adam Ottavino. Of that group Chapman is the only impact arm and has an extensive history of closing games.

These new pitchers will help fill the void left by All-Star closer Kenley Jansen, who signed with the Angels, and Chris Martin who returned to his hometown Rangers. The loss of Jansen has left the Sox without a closer and the team has been auditioning Chapman, three-time All-Star Liam Hendriks, and Justin Slaten for the ninth-inning role.

It looks like Chapman is the in-house favorite to begin the season as the Red Sox closer, according to MassLive’s Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo.

LIAM HENDRIKS 

Which means Hendriks, who missed the entire 2024 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, will have a different role in the bullpen - largely due to his struggles this spring. In five Grapefruit League outings, Hendriks has recorded a 10.80 ERA with four strikeouts, without walking a batter.

Opposing hitters are hitting .462 off the veteran, racking up six earned runs off 12 hits over just five frames. Command issues have plagued Hendriks but the Red Sox feel that he’s making progress in overcoming that issue. According to reports, Hendriks has “hit 96 mph” in one of his spring training outings. As he gets more outings under his belt, the hope is that his velocity ticks up as the season gets underway.

Hendriks was the A’s closer from 2019-2020, where he posted a sub-2.00 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHIP, converting 29 saves over a two-year span. He would join the White Sox ahead of the 2021 season, where he posted back-to-back seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA and 30-plus saves in both 2021 and 2022.

When healthy, Hendriks is an effective strikeout reliever, ranking in the 97th percentile in strikeout rate in his last four seasons, according to Baseball Savant.

Many seemingly were penciling in Hendriks as the future closer after he signed last spring. Let's keep in mind that he's thrown just five big league innings since 2023. It's a lot to ask of a 36-year-old coming off Tommy John surgery to be the closer. 

It doesn't mean that on March 27 his role in the bullpen will be the same in the middle of the season. The Red Sox will need to see more consistency out of Hendriks before seriously considering him as their top ninth-inning option. 

AROLDIS CHAPMAN

Chapman’s stuff has been exceptional and if he ends up being the closer, it will impact how the rest of the Opening Day bullpen is constructed.

“It all depends on where we go,“ Cora said. ”We don’t know yet how we’re going to do it. The No. 4, No. 5 (starters) and who’s going to close, who’s going to be the setup man, all that stuff.

“Let’s say Chapman is the closer,” he added, “then you only have another lefty. Or you have to take two, or three.”

The veteran southpaw has a history of pitching in high-leverage situations over the course of his career. Chapman has 355 career saves under his belt and recently filled in the role of closer for the Pirates over the final two months of last season. The lefty finished the campaign with 14 saves and 98 strikeouts while posting a 3.79 ERA and 1.346 WHIP.

He's still throwing gas, routinely hitting triple-digits at 37-years-old. He brings swing-and-miss stuff to the back of the bullpen that the Sox haven't seen in a few years. 

Chapman will still need to limit the free passes if he intends to hold on to the closer role.

“His bullpen the other day was indicative of what he can do, and he was filling up the box,” said Andrew Bailey. “We know he has elite stuff. He’s been a high performer in this game, and we know that comes with some walks at times. If we can limit those, that would be really good.

“He has his routines and creates awareness around count leverage and what pitches he’s really good at zoning up and other ones where he can generate a little bit more swing-and-miss.”

It sounds like Chapman is drinking the Red Sox pitching program’s Kool-Aid and has been receptive to their advice.

“I think he’s on the right path, for sure,” said Bailey. “You’re talking about a guy who’s already been locked in to who he is. He challenges himself, he takes really good care of himself and maintains his routine. He’s bought in to what keeps him on track and what’s kept him healthy and you have to give him props for that.”

When Boston signed Chapman in the winter to a one-year, $10.75 million deal, it was with the intention for him to compete for a high-leverage spot in the bullpen. On top of that, he wanted to pitch for Boston, and was clear he's open to doing anything for the ball club. 

“To be here in such a historic organization, one of the biggest, major organizations in the league for me, it’s a huge honor to be here,” said Chapman through a team translator when speaking to the Red Sox media after he signed. “The negotiations were between my agent and the team. When my agent brought the option to go to Boston, for me it was just happiness. I was very happy to be able to come to Boston.

“I feel like I don’t have any problem pitching in any kind of situation,” said Chapman. “I pretty much have been in every role in the bullpen. So, any time they need me, I’ll be ready to pitch.”

JUSTIN SLATEN

The second-year reliever seemed like an intriguing option after a successful rookie season, posting a 2.93 ERA, 2.61 FIP, and 1.01 WHIP with 58 strikeouts and two saves in 55 1/3 innings (44 games).

The righty had a strong 25.9% strikeout rate, ranking him in the 72nd percentile of league arms, which was paired with an impressive 4.0% walk rate, which was in the 97th percentile on Baseball Savant.

This spring he pitched in four games where he’s posted a 4.91 ERA with three strikeouts and two walks in 3 2/3 innings. Slaten is higher up on the internal depth chart than Hendriks. He could have slotted even higher but the nagging stomach bug going around camp impacted the righty and he was away from the team.

Boston acquired Slaten in a trade during the Major League portion of the Rule 5 draft after the Mets selected him.

Slaten lived up to the expectations, and the Red Sox were rewarded for his impressive season. His pitch mix and results from last season paint the picture that he is up for the task of being the closer in the future.

The 27-year-old was a key member of the Red Sox bullpen, which Slaten described as a “tight-knit unit” and attributes a big part of his success last season to Martin.

“I mean, he was, in all my years of baseball, I think I was getting some of the most beneficial stuff that I've gotten was just from watching him and being around him and learning how to pitch, how to handle the big moments, the pressure, and this and that,” said Slaten while on the “To the Show We Go” Baseball Show.

Slaten learned how to be a trustworthy teammate and learned to be a “leader without really trying to be a leader.”

“I mean, you ask anybody, ‘Hey, do you think that Chris Martin wants to be a captain on scene?’” said Slaten. “The answer is going to be no. He would tell you no. I would argue that he had some of the most influence in the locker room just because of the respect that people had for him, but also the respect that he had for other people.

“I mean, having a guy like him that just kind of kept everything together. I mean, he was the glue, and when we didn't have him, things were kind of tough because it's just you're missing “this presence that you have in the bullpen where he was just kind of like, in a way, the dad, we would kind of call him at times, like the dad of the bullpen, where it was like just able to keep everybody together being on the road.”

He may not be ready to close games just yet for the Red Sox, but the likes of Martin have helped shape him as the future leader of the bullpen.

WHO GETS THE REMAINING SPOTS?

With Chapman, Slaten, Hendriks, Garrett Whitlock, and Wilson all but locks for the bullpen, that leaves two or even three more spots open.

Whitlock could be another option to close games in the ninth if Chapman struggles.

He's been the most successful in his career when pitching out of the bullpen. The 28-year-old has a career record of 18-11 over 241 2/3 innings while posting a 3.39 ERA with 252 strikeouts as a reliever.

“Let’s go back to the bullpen, baby,” said Whitlock to reporters at Fenway Fest in January.

What made the Red Sox come to the decision to have Whitlock pitch primarily out of the bullpen?

“I think it was just kind of a little bit of everything. It's one of those things where, obviously, I still have the repertoire and everything to start, and if they need me to do that, I'll do that,” Whitlock said. “But just talking to [manager Alex Cora] and everything, it's comfortable down there, and it’s where I've had success and everything. So it's what we think is going to help give the team the best chance to win. So we're going to do that.”

His versatility will be a massive asset for Cora this season; he can pitch in a multi-innings role or in a high-leverage spot at the back end, setting up Chapman while he is the closer.

Right-handers Luis Guerrero, Zack Kelly, Greg Weissert, Josh Winckowski, and Ottavino, and lefty Brennan Bernardino are in the mix for those remaining spots.

Ottavino has been a disappointment; Moore arrived at camp later after the Red Sox lost Zach Penrod for a significant amount of time with an elbow injury. If Ottavino and Moore fail to make the roster, they can opt-out before Opening Day.

Cora told reporters on Tuesday that the team’s roster won’t be finalized before they head to Monterrey, Mexico for an exhibition series. All final decisions regarding their 26-man Opening Day roster must be in place before Thursday’s game in Arlington.

“The roster, we have a lot of good players but we cannot just throw 26 guys and hope for the best. It has to be a functional roster,” Cora said Tuesday. “That’s my job as a manager, to piece that together.

“This is the cool part of spring training. You start playing GM with everybody and making decisions based on what’s best for the team. What’s best for the team is not September or October. It’s what’s best for the team in April. There’s meaningful games to play in April and we have to make sure the roster makes sense for that to happen.”

Cora wants a set closer despite a committee of competent arms that can handle the duties. Boston has tried a closer by committee in the past and it didn't work. Do you remember the 2003 season and playoff run? It was the main reason why the team dished out the money the following offseason to sign Keith Foulke. 

The bullpen roster construction has been suspect all winter long, and it started with signing Chapman. Craig Breslow did very little to add to his bullpen apart from banking on oft-injured relievers to come back from injuries and surgeries with the hopes they'll perform at a high level. Cora has a history of overworking his bullpens the last couple of seasons due to the starters' inability to pitch deeper into games. That recipe could be troublesome with the amount of returning relievers and the risk of potentially overusing them this coming season. 

Red Sox starters haven’t shown they can go deep into games outside of Tanner Houck. Of his 30 starts, in 21 he worked six innings or more, and in five starts he went seven innings or more. Brayan Bello went at least six innings in 10 of his 30 starts, and in one, he went eight innings. Kutter Crawford, who pitched essentially on one leg, went six frames—16 times or more— including four where he went at least seven innings.

Relievers are extremely volatile in the game, and not committing big-dollar deals to some of the free agents made some sense. What didn't make sense was not acquiring an impact arm through a trade in addition to Chapman.