The Los Angeles Dodgers opened and closed Major League Baseball’s annual Winter Meetings on opposite ends of the spectrum.
On Monday, the first morning of the meetings, Los Angeles agreed to trade for Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman.
However, by Monday night the deal was thrown into limbo as a report surfaced detailing Chapman’s alleged involvement in a domestic violence dispute at his Florida home in October.
Along with the trade fallout, Major League Baseball launched an investigation into Chapman over the incident.
The electric closer is now one of three players — joining Colorado Rockies shortstop Jose Reyes and Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig — currently being investigated by MLB under their overhauled domestic violence policy.
While a previous report indicated the Dodgers moved on from trading for Chapman, manager Dave Roberts said a deal remains possible during an interview with Jim Rome on CBS Sports Radio:
“I don’t think that we closed the book on that. I know that we are excited about potentially making that trade. And obviously, if you see Chapman on the mound and he’s dominant out there and we were going to be better for it. So obviously, with what happened, we are just kind of letting the process kind of play out and we will try to circle back if that’s the case, but obviously, we’re looking at definitely other options. I’m not going to tie ourselves to that right now, but we will kind of let things play out for sure.”
Dependent on the timing of a trading for Chapman, the Dodgers could be without the left-hander should MLB commissioner Rob Manfred had down a suspension as a result of the league’s investigation.
While Chapman is currently in line to become eligible for free agency after the 2016 season, a minimum of a 46-game suspension would delay that as players suspended can’t accrue service time. Thus, Chapman would not accumulate the requisite days to become free-agent eligible until after the 2017 season.
Chapman recorded 33 saves with a 1.63 ERA, 1.94 FIP, 1.15 WHIP and 116 strikeouts over 66.1 innings (65 appearances) last season. It was the fourth year he’s had at least that many saves, and Chapman has been named to the National League All-Star team each season over the same stretch.
