Aroldis Chapman Sets Fastball Velocity Mark For Record Sixth MLB Team

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Aroldis Chapman (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Hall of Famers Walter Johnson, Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan were regarded as the hardest throwers of their time, long before the days of omnipresent radar guns.

In the past 40 years, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Billy Wagner and Justin Verlander are the most decorated Best Fastball category winners in BA Best Tools voting.

But one man stands alone as baseball’s speed king: Aroldis Chapman.

Chapman has thrown a pitch faster than 100 mph in 16 straight seasons, a record for the pitch-tracking era. His 98.9 mph average fastball velocity is the fastest among pitchers with at least 500 career innings since 2002, the first year for which velocity data is available at FanGraphs.

Chapman combines extreme heat with extreme durability in measures that even past flame-throwing closers such Goose Gossage, Wagner or contemporary Craig Kimbrel could not surpass. 

Remarkably, the 37-year-old Chapman is still at it this season as the primary closer for the Red Sox. Recently, he extended a record that is likely to be an unbreakable one.

By throwing a 102.3 mph fastball on April 19, Chapman set the standard for fastest documented fastball thrown by a Red Sox pitcher. Now, he has thrown the fastest pitch for six different MLB teams since the advent of Pitch f/x tracking technology in 2008.

No other pitcher owns the velocity record for more than two teams. Active pitchers Jordan Hicks and Andres Muñoz are still in their primes and can’t be ruled out entirely as challengers, but they need to continue at their current pace of dominance and durability to cover four additional teams.

In succession, Chapman threw the fastest fastball for the Reds, Yankees, Cubs, Royals, Pirates and Red Sox. He has set the speed standard for every team for which he has played—except for the Rangers.

Former closer Neftali Feliz holds the Texas franchise record for peak velocity. He threw a pitch tracked at 104.1 mph in 2010, his American League Rookie of the Year season.

The top mark Chapman registered for Texas was 101.7 mph. But to be fair, he spent only June, July, August and September of 2023 with the Rangers following a trade from the Royals. In the 2023 postseason, Chapman hit 101.5 mph for the World Series-champion Rangers.

Here are the peak velocity leaders for all 30 MLB teams, as sourced from Baseball Savant’s MLB Statcast search tool.

J.J. Cooper performed the Statcast research for this piece.