Pirates have a smarter Red Sox trade target than Aroldis Chapman

The Pittsburgh Pirates' attempt to cling to life in the NL Wild Card picture is, quite simply, going to come down to their bullpen. The offense ranks four in the league in runs scored, while the rotation in responsible for a top-12 ERA. The relief corps, on the other hand, has allowed the sixth-most runs in baseball.

That revelation isn't news to anyone who has been paying attention to this team this year. The bullpen remains a mess that needs cleaning, which makes the next month leading up to the trade deadline all the more important. Any breakouts or redemption stories can negate the need to add multiple relievers from outside the organization.

Still, there will need to be some kind of arrival of new talent in order to patch up the Pirates' biggest weakness. Dennis Santana and Gregory Soto haven't been good enough in the final innings of late games, hence why the Buccos keep getting linked to a reunion with star closer Aroldis Chapman.

But what if I told you that Chapman isn't the Red Sox reliever worth hunting this trade season? Rather, why shouldn't the Pirates prioritize a younger option with more team control and similarly sterling stats?

Garrett Whitlock should be the prize of Pirates' trade deadline performance

Obviously, acquiring Chapman wouldn't be a bad idea. He's one of the most reliable late-inning options in the league and remains impossibly effective as a closer despite being a velocity-dependent pitcher in his age-38 season.

However, he just authored an ugly month of June, one in which he recorded a 7.50 ERA and walked hitters at a 14.7% rate. A lingering hamstring injury appears to be at fault for those struggles, though he hasn't gone on the injured list yet. Perhaps Chapman will be fine, but a pitcher his age dealing with a lower body injury is always cause for concern.

Garrett Whitlock doesn't have a track record of perfect health, either, but he is younger (he just turned 30 in June) and comes attached to two affordable team options in 2027 and 2028. He's also been a tremendous high-leverage reliever over the past two seasons, backing up his breakout 2025 campaign (2.25 ERA, 2.18 FIP) with another stellar season in 2026 (2.60 ERA, 2.86 FIP).

The right-hander strikes out a ton of hitters (29.1%) and walks practically no one (5.5%), and he's one of the best pitchers in the league at forcing hitters to expand the strike zone. For all of those reasons — plus the fact that he's set up to be the Red Sox's closer of the future once Chapman is traded — he's going to be expensive to trade for, but he'd be a paradigm-shifting addition to the Pirates' bullpen.

Acquiring Whitlock would qualify as one of the biggest buy-side moves of Ben Cherington's tenure in Pittsburgh, though this rotation and offense has played well enough to earn some reinforcements late in games.

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