I have many people emailing me and tweeting me about a potential suspension Aroldis Chapman and what it could mean to his impending free agency. I wanted to take this opportunity this morning to quickly put it all in once place rather than responding to everyone individually, some call it lazy but I call it efficiency.
If and when Chapman is suspended by the league due to his altercation in Florida with the league's Domestic Violence Policy he would have to be suspended for at least 45 days to delay his free agency. Free agency is based on MLB service time and if Chapman was suspended for at least 45 days, not games, he would not accumulate the amount of service time needed to qualify for free agency thus leaving him under team control for the 2017 season as well.
So I did the math and the 45th day of the MLB season, for the Yankees anyway, is on Wednesday, May 18th. That is a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks just as an FYI. This accumulates to a 40 game suspension. If Chapman gets a 40 game suspension or higher we will see him in pinstripes for the 2017 season with one more year of arbitration eligibility. If it's less than that, and Jon Heyman formerly of CBS seems to think it will be, than he hits free agency as expected and the Yankees can offer him a qualifying offer.
Now everyone is caught up. Carry one.
