The New York Yankees have added some heat to the bullpen. Aroldis Chapman is a New York Yankee according to multiple reports from baseball’s finest reporters on Monday.
Chapman, a four-time all-star with the Reds, had a 1.63 ERA and 1.146 WHIP this past season along with a 15.7 K/9 ratio working in his favor. In goes without saying Chapman will help boost the bullpen for the Yankees and allow the Yankees to shorten a number of games by an inning. It will cost the Yankees a few minor league prospects, but this is pretty much the norm for the Yankees, who are always in win-now mode and can ship off prospects for almost any key player they desire. The Yankees may have to pay Chapman about $13 million in 2016.
Yankees have acquired Aroldis Chapman from the Reds for RHPs Caleb Cotham and Rookie Davis and INFs Eric Jagielo and Tony Renda.
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) December 28, 2015
Of course, the addition of Chapman does not come without its share of baggage. Earlier this month Chapman was accused of deomstesic violence, which reportedly put a trade between the Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers on ice. At the time, the domestic violence accusation was thought to toss Champman’s trade value into the trash…
Unless a team fully agrees with Reisinger, difficult to see any club trading for Chapman now, particularly with MLB investigating.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 8, 2015
Enter the New York Yankees. The Yankees acquired Chapman under the assumption their new bullpen arm will serve some sort of suspension in 2016 as a result of the domestic violence accusatsion.
#Yankees do anticipate that Chapman will deal with some kind of suspension for domestic abuse allegations #Reds
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 28, 2015
As @Joelsherman1 noted, Yankees are anticipating Chapman will serve some type of suspension in 2016 over alleged domestic violence incident.
— JackCurryYES (@JackCurryYES) December 28, 2015
Given the smaller return for Chapman than anyone may have expected over the past couple oif years, it sure looks as though the Reds just wnated to cut ties with him and take whatever they could. And with the Yankees unable to really do anything to add to the starting rotation, adding depth in the bullpen is needed. How the Yankees handle the off-field drama in New York will be fascinating.
