The Red Sox have reportedly agreed to a deal with left-hander Aroldis Chapman to bolster their bullpen. The name may raise some eyebrows, but the move itself shouldn’t surprise anyone.

That’s because Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said he would.

Breslow might not have said outwardly that the Red Sox were specifically targeting flamethrower Chapman. However, Boston’s baseball boss laid out his team retooling rubric at the start of the offseason, and Chapman ticked all the boxes.

“We’ve seen it year after year in the playoffs. “Guys who can create swings and misses, whether it’s with great speed or dominant ball breaks, those guys are successful, especially in the postseason,” Breslow told reporters at GM meetings in November, according to MLB.com. “So I think we’ll try to add some raw stuff. Someone we can count on to initiate a rally, close out plays or set up the end of a game and can create some swings and misses in the strike zone.”

Breslow even said they would try to add a lefty.

In the last 20 years, there may not have been a left-hander more synonymous with raw stuff than Chapman. The 36-year-old’s best days are behind him. He hasn’t earned an All-Star Game selection since 2021 and is more than a decade removed from the 2012 season in which he struck out 122 of 276 batters en route to a top-10 finish in the National League Cy , which he faced Young Award voting.

Still, he still represents a significant improvement for a Red Sox bullpen that will also almost certainly lose Kenley Jansen. Even with Jansen, the Red Sox relievers posted a swing-and-miss rate of 10.3; only three teams had lower odds. Chapman, on the other hand, posted a swing-and-miss rate of 13.3%, a number that is still a decline from his career rate (16.4%).

Speed ​​is a big reason for this. Chapman may not have reached the triple-digit average he did in Cincinnati, but his four-seam fastball still averaged 97.8 mph last season, and his sinker, which he used 27% of the time, still reached one cool speed 99.9 miles per hour (the only time since 2018 that the value fell below triple digits). With all due respect to Brennan Bernardino, Chapman brings an element that the Red Sox haven’t had in a long time – if ever.

Recently added journeyman reliever Justin Wilson addresses the same needs (albeit to a much lesser extent).

The Red Sox have made the bullpen a priority heading into the winter, and while other – far larger – dominoes have yet to fall, Boston should be in a better position in 2025.