Sitting three and a half games clear in the AL Central entering play Tuesday, the Minnesota Twins front office is doing their homework on potential relievers to add to the bullpen.
According to KSTP’s Darren Wolfson, one of those relievers the Twins are doing “some work” on is seven-time All-Star lefty Aroldis Chapman of the Kansas City Royals.
“As we trend toward August 1, heck, they’ve already done some work on Aroldis Chapman. We know the Royals are going to sell,” Wolfson said on Tuesday’s Mackey & Judd Show.
“The Royals, to me, are inevitably, going to trade Aroldis Chapman,” continued Wolfson. “Every team could use another reliever. So, why not try to get something done sooner rather than later? I did talk to [Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey] about that the other day. He said, ‘Hey, the seed-planting is underway but a lot of teams are trying to evaluate ‘Are we sellers or are we buyers?'”
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote about the Royals looking to move Chapman, saying KC is giving teams two options for acquiring the lefty reliever. One, teams can act sooner than later and acquire Chapman for a “better prospect package,” or two, take Chapman and another Royals player.
The second Royals player, per Rosenthal, would presumably be right-handed reliever Scott Barlow or veteran catcher Salvador Perez.
Chapman, 35, has a 2.95 ERA in 21.1 innings pitched with 35 strikeouts while holding opposing batters to a .197 average. Barlow, 30, is holding batters to a similar .193 average with a 3.52 ERA and 33 strikeouts.
“That would be something I would keep my eye on. Maybe not just that one name, there’s going to be some other names,” said Wolfson about Chapman.
Last week, ESPN’s Jeff Passan called Chapman the best reliever on the trade market. He might be 35 years old and a rental player because he’s a free agent after the season, but his velocity is back where it was when he was dominating opponents and this season his fastball has been clocked as high as 104 mph.
