Maybe it's just an outlier, but Aroldis Chapman's recent performances should make the Boston Red Sox a little worried moving forward.
Chapman had a resurgence in his first season with the Red Sox last year, recording a 1.17 ERA with 32 saves in 61.1 innings. He even finished seventh in voting for the AL Cy Young award, and he has mostly picked up where he's left off (2.19 ERA, 16 saves in 24.2 innings). But he's left a lot to be desired in his last few appearances, which could spell bad news for Boston, especially if it looks to sell ahead of this year's trade deadline.
Aroldis Chapman may be tanking his trade value with the Red Sox
The Cuban native has given up at least one earned run in three of his last six appearances, including two blown saves against the Colorado Rockies on Jun. 22 (which Boston ultimately lost 3-2) and the New York Yankees on Jun. 28 (which the Red Sox won 5-4 in the 10th inning).
One six-game sample size shouldn't be enough to negate a season-and-a-half of elite pitching, but Chapman is also 38 years old. He's not going to have many more opportunities to increase his trade value, and worst-case scenario, maybe this is the first sign that he's finally regressing for real.
Boston ultimately has a big decision to make ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline as it teeters back and forth between being a buying and selling team. But despite how well the team has played recently (and Chapman's poor performances), it's still clear what they should do.
Aroldis Chapman's cold streak shouldn't change Red Sox' trade plans
The Red Sox are in a strange situation right now. They are 36-46, sit in last place in the division, and only three teams in the AL own a worse record than they do (Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals). But they also just swept the Yankees in a four-game series and are only 4.5 games back of the third AL Wild Card spot.
There is still a lot of baseball left, and Boston has the time to legitimately turn things around. But even if they sneak their way into the postseason, are the Red Sox an actual World Series threat? No.
Regardless of this hot streak they've been on, the Red Sox should still be sellers at the trade deadline. And that includes moving on from Chapman.
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