Aroldis Chapman did not mince words when discussing his beef with his former team, the New York Yankees, in an appearance on the Swing Completo podcast.“I dealt with a lot of disrespect there," Chapman said. "I put up with a lot of things. I knew that they just wanted to find a way to get rid of me, but they didn’t know how. And I just dealt with it quietly, kept playing, and doing what I always do."
This beef has nothing to do with the rivalry that his current team, the Boston Red Sox, has with the Yankees, but it has to do with Chapman's tenure in the Bronx. Apparently, Chapman was as miserable during his time with the Yankees as Yankees fans were having to watch him. Chapman went as far as to say he'd retire before playing another game with the Yankees.
“No way. Not even dead,” Chapman said in a clip shared through Instagram. “If I were told that I was being traded to New York, I’d pack my things and go home. I’ll retire right on the spot if that happens. I’m not crazy. Never again."
The Yankees have irritated their share of players, and I'm not one to tell a player how he should feel, but there's absolutely no reason to side with Chapman here. His Yankees backlash is completely unwarranted.
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There's no reason for Aroldis Chapman to be upset with the Yankees
I'm not Chapman, nor do I have any affiliation with the Yankees, but why would he be so upset with the franchise? It appears as if his gripe with the organization has to do with their desire to get rid of him. My response to that is, who'd blame the Yankees for wanting to get rid of him? This is Major League Baseball. Nobody is safe, especially an aging reliever with off-field concerns and diminishing velocity and effectiveness. That was Chapman by the end of his Yankees tenure.
Chapman was once an elite reliever - so elite, in fact, that the Yankees gave him a five-year, $86 million deal back in 2016, the richest for a reliever at the time. The relationship between the two sides was so strong that Chapman agreed to a contract extension in the 2019 offseason, keeping him in New York through 2022 instead of having the southpaw leave as a free agent.
As the years went by, though, the frustration for Yankees fans, and presumably the organization, only grew. Chapman was the one who surrendered series-clinching home runs in both 2019 and 2020. Chapman then had the worst year of his career in 2022. His Yankees tenure ended after he suffered an infection after getting a tattoo during the season. He was left off their postseason roster that year, and in frustration, Chapman left, rather than wait for a potential opening. What were the Yankees supposed to do, carry a reliever they felt wasn't worthy of a spot? Chapman was the one who acted off base there.
To sum up, Chapman was traded to the Yankees, liked it so much that he re-signed with them twice, and then flamed out largely for reasons in his control. He's the one who was ineffective and hard to trust by 2022, and he's the one who chose to get the midseason tattoo that effectively ended his time in the Bronx. What did the Yankees do wrong here?
While there's no reason to believe the Yankees mishandled anything with Chapman, it'd be foolish to disregard the fact that he's just the latest player with complaints.
Aroldis Chapman is far from the only Yankees player with complaints about the franchise
The Yankees are, by all accounts, a first-class organization, but they've had several players in recent years voice complaints for different reasons.
We all know about the unfathomable facial hair rule that the Yankees had implemented for decades. Several players were outspoken about their disdain for that rule. The Yankees called out Gleyber Torres on more than one occasion for his lack of hustle, and Torres didn't appreciate that. Clint Frazier has ripped Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman several times over the past year for how they run things analytically. It was even reported that a reason why Soto chose the New York Mets over the Yankees in free agency had to do with a family suite that the Yankees were unwilling to offer.
In these situations, whether we agree with the frustrated players or not, it's at least understandable as to why they might have beef with the Yankees. The same cannot be said about Chapman, who Yankees fans are beyond done with.
Yankees fans want no part of Aroldis Chapman anyway
Chapman would retire before he plays another game for the Yankees, and I'd say many Yankees fans would stop watching if he were brought back anyway. Forget his off-field transgressions; Chapman was an utter disaster on the field by the end of his tenure and was impossible to trust in big games.
The fact that he's completely rediscovered his velocity and revived his career with the Red Sox of all teams at age 37 is just a slap in the face to all Yankees fans. Watching him pitch well for another team would've hurt, but it's even worse that he's thriving with the Yankees' biggest rival.
Chapman wants no part of the Yankees, and Yankees fans want him even less.
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