Craig Breslow cites ‘extensive’ process when explaining why Red Sox signed Aroldis Chapman
“This is a guy who’s been in good standing across five organizations for the last eight years, and in no way does that diminish the severity of what happened.”
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The Red Sox’ second free agent signing of the winter became official on Tuesday.
Left-handed relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman passed his physical and inked a one-year contract with Boston, reportedly worth $10.75 million.
The 36-year-old consistently throws 100 miles per hour, but he comes with baggage.
Chapman was suspended 30 games by MLB in 2016 under the league’s then-new Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse policy. He allegedly choked his girlfriend and pushed her against a wall in October 2015. Chapman admitted to firing gunshots in the garage during the incident.
He was not arrested.
Now, with Chapman a member of the Red Sox, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explained why the organization felt “comfortable” signing him. Breslow cited an “extensive” background check process that led up to the deal.
“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,” Breslow said, via The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey. “This is a guy who’s 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. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive about Aroldis as a teammate, as a positive influence on other players in the clubhouse, particularly some of the younger Latin players, was a guy with an incredible work ethic. And ultimately, we were comfortable with the decision to move forward.”
Boston nearly traded for Chapman following the 2015 season, according to former Red Sox executive Zack Scott. Scott said there was a deal in place between Boston and the Cincinnati Reds, but the Red Sox “discovered disturbing details” about the alleged domestic incident, and the trade fell through.
“I guess enough time has passed without incident for the Sox to be ok with it now,” Scott shared on X last week.
Breslow doubled down on Boston’s behind-the-scenes effort before inking Chapman to a contract.
“But again, we want to reiterate that that does not ignore what happened and will continue to take these on a case-by-case basis. But we felt like we had kind of run this extensive process and collected as much information as we possibly could.”
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