The Kansas City Royals are the second-worst team in MLB this season. They are only six games ahead of the Oakland Athletics, one of the biggest dumpster fires in the history of American professional sports. The Royals do have a few things going for them, though, with one of them being that they have Aroldis Chapman, a veteran that rival teams seem to be ready to pony up assets for.

After an unceremonious end to his stint with the New York Yankees, Chapman has bounced back in a big way with the Royals. The 35-year-old. hurler has a 2.95 ERA, his lowest since 2019, as he gets more spin and juice on his pitches, resulting in an average exit velocity of just 84.2 miles per hour and a strikeout percentage of 38.5 percent. He makes just over $4 million, which should make him easy to move.

The Royals are not going to part with Chapman easily ahead of the trade deadline, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. They are giving teams two options for acquiring Chapman in a trade.

The first option, according to Rosenthal, is to “Part with a better prospect package to gain control of Chapman for nearly four months of the regular season, rather than the two months a team would get by acquiring him at the trade Aug. 1 deadline.” Adding more prospects to a young core headlined by Vinnie Pasquantino and Bobby Witt Jr. would be extremely helpful.

The second option is to “Accept Chapman as part of a package with another Royals player, enabling Kansas City to shed payroll while ensuring a better return in a trade.” The Royals have some huge contracts they could offload, namely Salvador Perez and Jordan Lyles. Both players are key contributors, though, so the Royals would have to be ready to replace them in their depth chart.

Aroldis Chapman could be a good fit on many teams. He is on a one-year deal, so Kansas City should be eager to make a trade, as they could lose out on his value after this season. We'll see if Chapman ends up finishing the 2023 season on another team.