In the pitch-tracking era — from 2008 to the present — no pitcher has thrown 100 MPH or harder in more different regular seasons than Aroldis Chapman: 17. The next closest are Nathan Eovaldi and Gerrit Cole, each with 10. That’s a seven-season gap. And it’s still widening, because Chapman — at 38 years old — closed out 2026 averaging 96.9 MPH while still topping out at 101.6 MPH out of the Boston Red Sox bullpen.
A Number With No Real Competition
The ranking was published by @CodifyBaseball on October 9, 2026, using official Statcast data. Here’s how the full top of the list looks:
- 17 — Aroldis Chapman
- 10 — Nathan Eovaldi, Gerrit Cole
- 9 — Joe Kelly, José Alvarado, Edwin Díaz
Those are elite arms. Eovaldi and Cole are two of the hardest throwers of the past decade. And they’re still seven seasons behind Chapman. To put that distance in perspective: if Cole started a streak today with no interruptions, he wouldn’t reach Chapman’s 17 until 2033 — by which point Chapman would be 45 years old.
Why 17 Seasons at 100 MPH Is a Physical Anomaly
Chapman made his MLB debut on August 31, 2010 with the Cincinnati Reds. That same year, he threw the fastest pitch ever recorded in the majors: 105.8 MPH on September 24, 2010 — still the all-time Statcast record and a Guinness World Record. Since then, there hasn’t been a single regular season in which he failed to hit triple digits. Heavy workloads, bullpen injuries around him, mid-career team changes — none of it broke the streak.
What makes the stat even more remarkable is that elite velocity and durability almost never travel together. The rise of 100+ MPH pitchers in MLB is real — from 2020 to 2024, 29 pitchers threw at least 100 pitches at that speed, nearly double the previous five-year window — but most of those arms show up for a season or two before injury or wear takes them out. Chapman has been showing up for 17 years.
The 2026 season was also one of the most milestone-packed of his career. He finished with 35 saves, a 1.92 ERA, and 71 strikeouts in 53 appearances. He passed Hoyt Wilhelm as the all-time strikeout leader among relief pitchers, reaching 1,402 career Ks, and hit 402 career saves — ninth in MLB history.
The Count Won’t Stop at 17
Chapman automatically triggered a $13 million option for 2027 with the Red Sox after surpassing the 40-inning threshold in August 2026. So the record keeps going. Over his two combined seasons in Boston (2025–2026), he’s posted a 1.57 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP — numbers that put him among the best active closers in the game — with a fastball that remains the centerpiece of the bullpen.
The record for most different seasons throwing a 100+ MPH pitch is, at its core, a record for something harder to measure than velocity: the durability of an arm that has outlasted nearly every argument for why it shouldn’t last this long.
