Aroldis Chapman will be a free agent at the end of the season – but apparently, he may be an ex-Yankee sooner than that?
According to a report by the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, the Yankees “are at least contemplating” designating Chapman for assignment, depending on “whether they believe they can straighten out his delivery and confidence” and “trust him enough to put him on the postseason roster.”
Chapman is in the final season of the three-year, $48 million “extension” he signed in November 2019, which basically turned his second tenure in pinstripes into a six-year, $104 million deal. However, the now-34-year-old has dealt with injuries over the last few seasons and twice lost his closer role, and has a career-worst 4.36 ERA and 1.424 WHIP in 33 innings this season – which includes a career-low 1.27 average leverage index and only nine saves, none since May.
A DFA would be a financial formality, as Chapman is owed less than a million dollars the remainder of the way, and he would be ineligible for the postseason if he ended up elsewhere and/or did not accept an outright assignment to Triple-A.
However, it would signal that the Yankees are serious about putting their best pitching staff together for the postseason, and give players like Zack Britton and Scott Effross (who returned Saturday) more chances to get right – and maybe even the still-rehabbing Miguel Castro and Albert Abreu some big-league time and a chance to state their case for a postseason bullpen spot.
The Yankees knew entering September that, as they continued to get injured relievers back, there was going to be a crunch to begin with, and that has come to light in a big way recently. Peralta went on the IL to accommodate Britton’s return, and Greg Weissert, whose 6.10 ERA was partially a product of a rough MLB debut, was sent to Triple-A to activate Effross.
Meanwhile, Abreu has made three rehab outings over the last week as he comes back from biceps tendinitis; Stephen Ridings, who has missed the entire year with a shoulder impingement, is also on the rehab trail; and Castro, who has been out the entire second half with a shoulder injury, threw a shutout inning at Triple-A on Friday and has now made five rehab appearances of his own.
The ideal situation, it seems, is for Clay Holmes, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Lou Trivino to be the Yankees’ back-end/fireman combo, and Effross, Peralta, and one of the current starters (likely Domingo German) are surely earmarked for a spot in a postseason bullpen likely to be 10 arms deep.
Based on the current roster, the Yankees have Lucas Luetge (another lefty with a 2.78 ERA in 55 innings), rookie Ron Marinaccio (2.20 ERA in 41 innings), Chapman, a returned Britton, and swingman Clarke Schmidt also in the bullpen, and possibly one or all of Abreu, Castro, and maybe Ridings (as well as Weissert) in competition for the final spots – which would likely be lower-leverage and/or more based on ability to give length or match up.
The Yankees have 11 games left, starting Sunday night against Boston, and with their magic number to clinch the AL East down to three as of Sunday morning – and three games coming against second-place Toronto Monday-Wednesday – the Bombers could be in “figure it out” mode as soon as Tuesday, given their magic number is also three to clinch the AL East a bye in the Wild Card round.
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