The New York Yankees knew when they acquired closer Aroldis
Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds that the left-hander was going to be suspended
using Commissioner Rob Manfred’s new Domestic Violence Policy. The team didn’t
know for how long but it was almost a foregone conclusion that a suspension was
coming but New York took a chance regardless. Whether the team and their GM
Brian Cashman secretly counted on Chapman getting suspended for 46 days or more
making him ineligible for free agency at the end of the season is anyone’s
guess but common sense would tell you that the team would not have been
terribly upset if it happened, especially for a year-and-a-half of control of
Chapman for what they gave up in return. In the end Chapman was only suspended
for 30 games, rumor has it that it would have met the 46 days suspended if he
had appealed which is kind of shady in my opinion but that’s another discussion
for another blog, so I wanted to take a look at what the Yankees first 30 games
will look like in 2016.
As you can see the Yankees can absolutely weather the storm
without Chapman if the team comes out of the gates firing on all cylinders. The
bullpen is still strong with the returns of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller
and the bullpen has the potential to be truly unfair and absolutely ridiculous,
in a good way, if Chasen Shreve, Jacob Lindgren and others can return healthy
and return to form. It sucks losing your closer for a month of baseball but
when you put it into perspective it’s not that bad. A closer averages about
10-15 innings per month so that’s all the Yankees would be losing. This is
easier to swallow when you have two potential closers in Betances and Miller
behind him so in my opinion the Yankees will be fine.
Don’t fret Yankees family the 30 games will be over before
you know it and Chapman will be back to throwing 105 MPH+ heat coming to a
mound near you. Stay tuned.
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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)