Winter Meetings: All things Roki Sasaki
DALLAS - There was little mystery as to why the Red Sox prioritized signing Aroldis Chapman. The team believed it needed more swing-and-miss, and that's exactly what the fireballing reliever continues to deliver.
But what wasn't known was the process the Red Sox brass took to inking Chapman, whose arrival surfaced more questions than that of many acquisitions.
In 2015 Chapman was involved in an incident in which he allegedly put his hands around his then-girlfriend's neck, choked her and proceeded to fire eight gunshots. No charges were filed, with the pitcher's attorney releasing a statement denying the allegations.
Chapman would become the first player suspended by Major League Baseball under the personal conduct policy that didn't necessitate a conviction to issue a suspension. He would ultimately serve a 30-game suspension.
The issue served as the impetus for the Red Sox backing out of a trade for Chapman that would have sent Manuel Margot and Marco Hernandez to Cincinnati. The Sox pivoted to acquire closer Craig Kimbrel.
Nine years later, the Red Sox decision-makers were satisfied that they were getting a player who met their standards.
"I can speak to our decision around Aroldis and say that it is a decision that we took incredibly seriously and our background and reference checking was extensive," said Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. "This is a guy who has been in good standing across five organizations for the last eight years. And in no way does that diminish the severity of what happened. But we talked to former teammates, coaches, officials, executives. I talked individually to a number of people within the organization to get a sense of who the person was that we were getting. And the feeling was overwhelmingly positive about Aroldis as a teammate, as a positive influence on other players in the clubhouse, particularly the younger Latin players. This is a guy with an incredible work ethic. Ultimately we were comfortable with the decision to move forward. But, again, I want to reiterate that does not ignore what happened and will continue to take these on a case by case basis. But we felt like we had run this extensive process and collected as much information as we possibly could.
"No decision is made in a vacuum, but in this particular case I did feel it was important to get the position of ownership, of a number of people in the organization, and a number of people outside the organization. We felt like we needed to get as much information as we possibly could and that was the reason the process was so comprehensive. Ultimately we landed on being comfortable and so we moved forward."
Chapman joins a back-end of the bullpen that already includes Liam Hendriks, Justin Slaten and possibly Garrett Whitlock.
"I think he brings something that was sorely missed in our 2024 bullpen, the ability to generate swings and misses and an electrically dominant fastball, particularly from the left side," Breslow said. "We’ll figure out exactly what role he pitches in, but we feel he will be a huge piece of preserving leads late in game."
The Sox' CBO added, "We did as much as background as we possibly could. I think we collected a ton of information. We talked to teammates, coaches, front office, support staff and felt like we had gotten as complete a picture as we could and there are many, many instances where the praise was not just strong but effusive. Obviously, we’ll make that determination for ourselves now that he’s in the organization. But we feel like he will meaningfully improve our pen and all the information we got led us to be comfortable with the decision."