DALLAS — The Red Sox officially announced their one-year, $10.75 million contract with veteran reliever Aroldis Chapman on Tuesday, and in doing so, offered an explanation about changing course on an organizational stance and adding a player who has a history of domestic violence.
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Chapman was suspended by Major League Baseball for 30 games in 2016 for violating the league’s domestic violence policy after he was accused of pushing his girlfriend, putting his hands around her neck, choking her and firing multiple gunshots during an incident at his home in Florida the in October 2015. No charges were filed. Last week, former Red Sox assistant general manager Zack Scott revealed that the Red Sox had a deal in place to acquire Chapman from the Reds after the 2015 season but scuttled it after discovering the domestic violence accusations. That winter, the Dodgers also made a play for the lefty but backed out for similar reasons before the Yankees obtained him for a quartet of minor leaguers.
Under both Dave Dombrowski and Chaim Bloom, the Red Sox claimed to have a zero-tolerance policy when it came to acquiring players with domestic violence in their past. On Tuesday, Breslow explained that the organization takes related situations on a case-by-case basis and that there was extensive background work done before the agreement with Chapman was reached.
“It is a decision we took incredibly seriously,” Breslow said during a meeting with reporters at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. “Our background and reference-checking was extensive. This is a guy who has been in good standing across five organizations for the last eight years. 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. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive about Aroldis as a teammate, as a positive influence on other players on the clubhouse, particularly some of the younger Latin players. He’s a guy with an incredible work ethic. Ultimately, we were comfortable with the decision to move forward but we want to reiterate that it does not ignore what happened. We’ll 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 have.
“There were many, many instances where the praise was not just strong, but effusive,” Breslow added. “Obviously, we’ll make that determination for ourselves now that he’s in the organization. But we feel that he is going to meaningfully improve our ‘pen and all of the information we got ultimately led us to be comfortable with this decision.”
Breslow acknowledged that Boston’s ownership group was much more involved in the process of signing Chapman than it ordinarily would have been for the pursuit of a relief pitcher on a one-year contract.
“No decision is made in a vacuum but in this particular case, I did feel like it was important to get the position of ownership, of a number of people in the organization, and then a number of people outside the organization,” Breslow said. “We felt like we needed to get as much information as we possibly could. That was the reason the process was so comprehensive. Ultimately, we landed on being comfortable and so we moved forward.”
Chapman, a seven-time All-Star, has bounced around a bit since his six-year run with the Yankees ended following the 2022 season. He signed with Kansas City for 2023, then was traded to Texas at the trade deadline before signing with Pittsburgh for 2024. Last season, he posted a 3.79 ERA (26 ER/61.2 IP) over a career-high-tying 68 appearances for the Pirates. He ranked in MLB’s 99th percentile in expected opponent batting average (.165) and strikeout rate (37.1%), as well as the 98th percentile in average fastball velocity (98.7 miles per hour). For the Red Sox, who didn’t have a pitcher register a pitch at 100 mph or higher last year, the velocity was intriguing.
“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 feel like he’s going to be a huge piece of preserving leads deep in games.”
