I Do Not Want Aroldis Chapman
This is not the signing I was hoping for...
I had a plan. I had a whole plan for my first post-Thanksgiving newsletter, to talk about how batsh!t insane Red Sox Twitter got about signing Juan Soto, and Rob Manfred’s idiotic idea to “improve” baseball (which at this point will become its own piece). But no, I have to spend my time today talking about how the Boston Red Sox have inexplicably signed 37-year-old Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $10.75 million deal1.
This has nothing to do with Chapman’s performance as a reliever. He had a decent year in 2024, with 3.79 ERA across 61.2 innings2. He is a hard-throwing lefty, which the Red Sox sorely need. However, and this is a gargantuan f*cking however, Aroldis Chapman is a clubhouse cancer. He’s known to be a difficult teammate, even being taken off of the Yankees 2022 playoff roster3 because he chose to skip a mandatory workout in order to go to Miami. But more importantly, a lot more importantly, in 2015, Chapman was accused of hitting and choking his girlfriend, brandishing a firearm and firing eight shots, seven into a wall and one out a window4. Charges were never filed against Chapman, but MLB did suspend him for a mere 30 games to start the 2016 season, under their then-new domestic violence policy5. At the time, Chapman was actually going to be traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Los Angeles Dodgers before that incident derailed trade talks. The Yankees would later swoop in and make the trade with the Reds. Fast forward to 2024, and the Red Sox have picked him up, and I can’t stand it.
Besides the fact there are comparable, if not superior, left-handed relievers on the market in A.J. Minter and Tanner Scott, can we please stop, for the love of God, can we please stop giving men who abuse women airtime? It doesn’t feel like it’s that hard of an ask. “Oh, but it was almost 10 years ago. He was never charged. He served his suspension.” These are all things I’m sure some troll on Twitter is pointing out, thinking he’s so smart. Chapman picked up a firearm and pulled the trigger eight times - can we all agree that that in and of itself is an indicator of where his head was at. There are maybe two instances in which firing eight rounds in your home is a safe and rational thing to do, and doing it to scare your girlfriend isn’t one of them. Also, a 30 game suspension is weak, and the penalty at the time should’ve been more severe. All of that said, I cannot continue to relitigate Aroldis Chapman’s past behavior, as much as I would like to. It is hard to argue about something that is a decade old, but it doesn’t mean it’s not relevant. This leads me in my larger point, but first, I want you to look at this tweet, which was posted after the Red Sox signed Chapman:
Commissioner Rob Manfred is adamant that Major League Baseball’s audience needs to grow, and he is not wrong. But in order to do that, you have to reach a diverse array of people, and it is very hard to convince people like the person that wrote this tweet, or the roughly 12 million people each year who are victims of domestic violence6, that they should ignore how players treat those around them because of how well they throw, hit, or run. And to be absolutely clear, Aroldis Chapman is far from the first alleged domestic abuser to avoid any real accountability. Do you know how I know that? Well, there’s an entire goddamn Wikipedia article titled “List of Major League Baseball Players Suspended for Domestic Violence”. This is a serious ongoing issue that MLB is not taking nearly as seriously as it should.
The best thing about sports is that it builds community. Whether it’s online, or fans gathering together at a bar to watch their team, sports represents a very valuable opportunity that is increasingly rare in the post-COVID era. Loneliness and isolation are real problems, and having a shared interest with a stranger, bonding over that interest, is a powerful way to deal with those problems. So what does it say about us, what message are we sending when we don’t make a proper example out of abusers? What message are we sending to women, who are significantly more likely to be victims of abuse? And what message are we sending to boys and young men who look up to ballplayers? Are we telling them that if they abuse their partner, they just have to take a brief suspension before going back to work or signing at $10 million deal? Is that what we as a society want to incentivize? I love baseball, and it is important to me that anyone who wants to enjoy the game should get to. I badly want folks to see what I see in baseball, but it is incredibly hard to promote or defend the game in moments like this.
If you or a loved one is suffering from domestic abuse, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE, or text “START” to 88788
Bravo Bennett!!!