There’s an old phrase, attributed to the great Maya Angelou: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Four years ago, eight-time All-Star Aroldis Chapman evidently showed the Yankees who he was in a rocky final season in pinstripes, during which he pitched to a 4.46 ERA, missed nearly a month of action due to an infection in his leg stemming from a tattoo and decided to skip a mandatory workout four days before the start of the 2022 American League division series.
“You've got to be all in at this time of year, and it’s disappointing,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said of Chapman’s absence at the time. “We have people here who are competing and dying to be on this roster, fighting to be on this roster. Even though those decisions haven’t been made yet, he chose to be absent.”
Chapman, who was scheduled to throw a live batting practice session but instead chose to remain in his Miami-area home, claimed he received permission from the team to go to South Beach. The team said otherwise, with Cashman saying Chapman had “no legitimate reason” for his absence.
Yet, it seems to be a different Cashman comment that’s still sticking in Chapman’s craw to this day.
“When you add everything up, it’s not surprising,” Cashman said, pulling no punches. “There’s some questions about whether he’s all-in or not for a little while. He’s maintained verbally that he’s in, but at times actions don’t match those words. So when he didn’t show on Friday, obviously at first there were a lot of people upset and caught off guard.”
The comments must have wounded Chapman’s pride, as the now-Red Sox reliever, a potential trade chip, recently told ESPN Deportes that he would require an apology from the Yankees should the club attempt to reacquire him.
“What happened, happened," Chapman said. "If something like this were to happen, I believe someone from this organization should apologize first.”
Chapman specified that the certain “someone” was Cashman. When Yankees manager Aaron Boone, while speaking to reporters in Toronto on Friday, was asked if he felt Chapman deserved an apology, he was succinct.
“No,” Boone said bluntly, right after revealing Chapman had since apologized and that the skipped workout was “water under the bridge.”
Here’s the thing: Boone is absolutely right.
All due respect to Chapman, but if anything, he should apologize to the Yankees. The high-profile club took a chance on Chapman back in 2015, acquiring the flamethrowing closer from the Reds in exchange for four minor leaguers amid an investigation by MLB and Florida law enforcement into an Oct. 2015 incident during which Chapman allegedly choked his then-girlfriend and fired eight shots from a handgun into the garage of his home.
Chapman was not charged with domestic violence because of insufficient evidence, but MLB suspended the lefthander 30 games under the league’s Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy. Chapman returned to the mound in May of 2016, pitched to a 2.01 ERA in pinstripes, and then was dealt to the Cubs at the trade deadline.
He won the first of two championships in his career with the Cubs that year, then captured another with the Rangers in 2023. He has made four All-Star teams since his acquisition by the Yankees in 2016, three in New York and one in Boston. His 0.46 ERA in 19 ⅔ innings for the Red Sox this season would lead all of MLB if he were qualified in terms of innings.
He lost approximately $1.7 million during his 30-game suspension. He’s earned roughly $136.6 million on the field since, nearly half of those earnings coming from his time in the Bronx.
The point? Chapman’s career very well could have ended back in 2015. Teams could have reasoned his 105 mph fastball and work in the ninth inning weren't worth the hit their reputations would have taken for employing a ballplayer with serious allegations to his name.
The Yankees decided otherwise and the two parties enjoyed a symbiotic relationship for seven seasons, with Chapman somewhat rehabilitating his image around the league.
Then, Chapman chose to quit on the Yankees and was left off the 2022 ALDS roster. The lefthander with the sizzling fastball burned the bridge with Cashman but now effectively wants the Yankees GM to admit it was he who actually started the fire.
There’s as much of a chance of that happening as there is of the Yankees swallowing their dignity and asking their fiercest rivals to let them have another dance with Chapman.
