Top 5 Relievers on the Board Without Aroldis Chapman

One guarantee of Major League Baseball’s trade deadline is the abundance of movement within the reliever market.

Everything from low- to high-leverage, and everything in between. Teams can never have enough pitching, especially when in a pennant race. Not to mention the constant threat of injury, or the volatility of being a relief pitcher.

For several weeks, there was a clear top dog on the market: Boston Red Sox left-hander Aroldis Chapman. The 38-year-old, though not as dominant as his 2025, has a 1.93 ERA and 23 saves across 34 appearances. He’s blown just two saves as well; even nearly a run worse, he’s still mighty dependable.

Unfortunately for the league, Chapman may no longer be available. While it’s tough to rule out the possibility Boston takes a “buy-and-sell” approach to the deadline, a 15-game winning streak has them in sole possession of the third wild-card spot.

At this point, it’s hard to sell yourselves as a threat in a wide open American League while also trading your All-Star closer. There’s recent precedent of something similar, like the Seattle Mariners trading Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023. That said, the Mariners missed the postseason entirely, despite winning 88 games.

Trading Sewald may not play much of a role in them missing out, but it certainly didn’t help.

But the question now that Chapman is seemingly unavailable: Who is the top arm on the market? Rumors circulate, especially as certain teams spiral further out of the race. But them being floated doesn’t necessarily equate to true availability.

With that in mind, who are the top five relievers who could be available for the taking by August 3’s trade deadline?

All stats updated prior to games on Thursday, July 23

RHP Mason Miller, San Diego Padres

It’s hard to imagine the Padres offload the man they traded top prospect Leo De Vries for a year ago, but they’re in fairly dire straits as an organization. With oodles of money tied into star-caliber names not performing up to snuff, there’s at least reporting suggesting a willingness to move him in a salary dump.

If he’s available, he’d be the top option regardless of Chapman’s status in Boston. Miller, 27, is one of the most dominant arms in the sport. Across 40 outings, he’s got a 0.86 ERA and a 48.8% strikeout rate. Not only is he racking up the strikeouts, he’s done a good job limiting his walks (9.4%).

Miller is also 25-for-25 in save chances, with opponents hitting just .146 against him. His fastball is his calling card, an offering he averages 101.3 mph. However, his breaking stuff is arguably more dominant.

He’s flipped usage on the two offerings from a season ago. This year, his slider is his most-used offering at 53.2 percent, and opponents hit .148 against it with a 55.2% whiff rate. Of the 88 plate appearances he’s ended with a slider, 52 are strikeouts.

He’s nasty, plus has team control through 2029. It’d cost an arm and a leg to poach him from San Diego, and maybe still an arm even if you save the organization from one of its albatross contracts.

RHP Luke Weaver, New York Mets

Not a lot’s gone right for the Mets this year, particularly involving their offseason acquisitions. The main, and honestly lone, exception is former New York Yankees breakout reliever Luke Weaver.

The right-hander signed a two-year deal with the Mets last offseason, and has been just what the doctor ordered in high leverage for them. Across 39 appearances, he has a 1.98 ERA and 2.84 FIP. Additionally, he has a strikeout rate of 27.4 percent while tying his best walk rate since 2019.

Weaver is an appealing trade candidate for a multitude of reasons. For starters, he’s succeeded in multiple big markets, which eliminates any pause for an inquiring team. Having success, both in regular and post, in the media circus of New York shows tremendous poise.

Second, he’s got three plus offerings. His four-seam holds opponents to a .164 average, his changeup to a .150 average, and his cutter to a .125 average. Two of those offerings have whiff rates north of 30 percent, with all three carrying a wOBA against of .210 or better.

He’s got experience across all leverages, sometimes providing multiple innings. With another year of control to his name, he’s going to have a strong market this deadline season.

RHP Tejay Antone, Cincinnati Reds

Despite the multi-year layoff, Antone appears to have not missed a beat as a top reliever in MLB. For the first time since 2021, he’s made more than five appearances and logged over 5.2 innings.

This year, he’s made 30 appearances and has a 2.37 ERA, a 51.2% ground ball rate, and a 14.6% strikeout-to-walk rate.

He’s really dug in since May 18, where he has a 1.16 ERA across 23.1 innings of work. During that span, he’s got four holds and an opponents’ batting average of .172. First and foremost, it’s been nice just seeing him pitch on a somewhat regular basis. While he’s not pitched with a ton of frequency since early July, he’s been dependable when manager Terry Francona has called his number.

Antone has one more year of arbitration as well. So even if an acquiring organization needs to limit his workload as he continues through his first MLB season in five years, they’ve got him locked into their bullpen in 2027 as well.

LHP José Suarez, The Athletics

The veteran southpaw doesn’t jump off the page at you, but he’s elite at missing the barrel. In 2026, he’s 99th percentile for barrel rate and 90th percentile in hard-hit.

He’s also 72nd percentile for whiff, 65th for chase, and 68th for strikeout rate.

The Athletics are Suarez’s third stop in 2026. Overall, he’s not dominated by any means. He’s got a 4.42 ERA, but a 3.31 FIP and 0.7 fWAR. He’s one of the more heavily used arms in the league, however. To date, 24th in relief innings with 48 thus far. However, he’s at 53 innings when factoring in his pair of starts.

He’s also got one more year of arbitration in 2027 and, as a lefty, could fetch the Athletics a decent haul. We saw the cost of left-handed relief pitching in the offseason when Angel Zerpa got dealt to Milwaukee and Jose A. Ferrer to Seattle. Suarez isn’t as established as those two, but who’s to say the Athletics can’t capitalize nonetheless?

RHP Jeff Hoffman, Toronto Blue Jays

Hoffman is the poster child for ERA not telling the whole story of a reliever. Through 44 outings, he’s posting a 4.40 ERA. However, he’s got a 3.34 expected ERA, a 2.66 FIP, 1.0 fWAR, and a career-high 34.5% strikeout rate.

His Savant page is a sight for sore eyes, as well. While he’s merely a fringe average pitcher in missing the barrel and limiting walks, he’s elite of the elite in terms of strikeout stuff. Hoffman is 98th percentile for chase and whiff, and 97th in strikeout rate.

In a wide open AL, it’s hard to see the Blue Jays fully waving the white flag. Especially after the offseason they had, with all the money they spent. However, with the breakouts of Louis Varland and Spencer Miles, paired with the steadiness of Tyler Rogers, they’ve got a chance to offload Hoffman’s remaining salary and still recoup future assets.

Jays fans have a love-hate relationship with the veteran right-hander, especially after Game 7 of last year’s World Series. That said, he’d leave a sizable hole in that bullpen the rest of this season and all of next. Volatility aside, he’s one of the most polished right-handed relievers in baseball.