Aroldis Chapman Has Reported for Spring Training. Now What?

Aroldis Chapman reported to Yankees' camp in Tampa on Thursday morning and told reporters he felt great, was happy to be there, and that he couldn't wait to get started with his new team. "My main focus is to play baseball," he said, through an interpreter.

Chapman said this after he was asked, for the first time publicly, about an offseason incident in which he allegedly choked his girlfriend and fired a handgun eight times. Last month, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner told reporters that he believed Chapman was "innocent until proven otherwise." Manager Joe Girardi echoed the company line. "I want to get to know him before I judge his character," Girardi said.

While it is true that the New York Yankees are a privately held company and free to employ whomever they wish, in giving Chapman a uniform this morning, they turned their famous definition of decorum into farce. You cannot play baseball for the Yankees if you have facial hair on your cheeks, chin, or jawline. But you are welcome to put on the prestigious pinstripes if you are under investigation for domestic violence.

Following the NFL's recent bungling of domestic violence suspensions, new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced last August that the player's union and the league had agreed on a new domestic violence policy. This policy allowed the commissioner a wide range of options to punish offenders, and more latitude in terms of handing those punishments down; players can be disciplined regardless of whether they are convicted, or even charged, in criminal court.

Chapman, for his part, was not charged with a crime because his girlfriend declined to cooperate with investigators. But the police report in the case makes for disturbing reading. When asked Thursday if there was anything in the police report he wanted to clarify or dispute, Chapman declined to comment. Girardi told reporters he had not yet read the police report; if true, this is astounding, considering that Chapman figures to be one of his club's most important players. But Girardi did add that MLB would be well within its rights to suspend a player who was not charged with a crime based on an expectation of conduct.

Back in December, the Yankees acquired the hardest throwing relief pitcher in baseball history for four unremarkable prospects. "Given the circumstances that exist, the price point on the acquisition has been modified," Yankees GM Brian Cashman said at the time. The bloodless, passive language of that quote seemed significant then, and still does. By describing Chapman as "the acquisition" and his plummeting value due to potential assault charges as "the price point," Cashman coldly separated himself from the truth of the matter, which is that he was able to land the best reliever in the game for peanut shells because Chapman did something really bad.

The Dodgers had a deal in place for the Cuban lefty before the police report found its way onto the Internet. Los Angeles backed away amid public outcry. But when the Yankees swooped in and snagged him, the writing media mostly shrugged. A more honest assessment from Cashman would have acknowledged that yes, Chapman was probably violent and unstable, but also he can throw a baseball 103 miles per hour, so who cares. Fans want to win, right?

We don't know for sure if Chapman pushed or choked the mother of his infant child, as she initially told police, because she later refused to press charges. But we do know that a dozen officers descended on Chapman's home in Davie, Florida, around 11pm on October 30 after a dispute between Chapman and his girlfriend became so heated that he jumped into the passenger seat of his new Land Rover and punched the window with his pitching hand, busting his pinky open at the knuckle. When that failed to quiet his rage, Chapman grabbed his pistol from the glove compartment, locked himself in his garage, and fired eight shots. One of those bullets left the garage and landed in an open field next to the house. These facts are not disputed. Chapman told police about his hand and the gun when they arrived, and police found eight shell casings in the garage.

The woman told police that she and Chapman began to argue after she found something on his phone she did not like. She explained that he slammed her against a wall and choked her until someone else intervened. She fled the house and hid in the bushes in a neighbor's yard, and heard what sounded like a shotgun blast. Their infant child remained in the home. Chapman maintains that she fell to the ground when he poked her shoulder with his index finger. Chapman's driver said that the 130-pound woman had been the aggressor in the altercation, and that she had tackled the 6'4, 200-pound Chapman.

Chapman confirmed today that he met with MLB investigators, but declined to give specifics. The league is expected to announce Chapman's suspension, if there is one, before the season begins.

Chapman is on track to become a free agent in 2017. If he is suspended for more than 46 games, he will not accrue enough service time to be a free agent until 2018. This will hurt Chapman, who is likely to command an enormous contract on the open market. But it will reward the Yankees, who will then get two years—minus whatever games he misses due to suspension—of the hardest-throwing pitcher in the game.

If MLB is going to begin suspending players who assault or terrorize women and children, it cannot maintain the system currently in place, which benefits teams from signing and trading for those same violent offenders. If Chapman is suspended without pay for whatever happened on October 30, MLB should make the Yankees send his paychecks to a domestic violence charity, like Joe Torre's Safe At Home. And if Chapman's suspension benefits the Yankees with an extra year of team control, they should have to donate millions to Torre's charity again. As for what Chapman deserves for his behavior on the night in question, Manfred is faced with an unprecedented and probably unwinnable decision. Ten games? Twenty-five? Fifty? A series lost for every bullet fired in rage? Going soft on Chapman sends the wrong message. But, under the current state of play, going hard on him does, too—as it rewards the Yankees for acquiring him in the first place.

Chapman and his girlfriend appeared to have reconciled shortly after the incident. Social media indicates they are still together; on Christmas morning, Chapman posted a photo of the two of them smiling for the camera. When cops arrived at their home on the night Chapman fired the gun, they found no bruising or red marks on the woman's neck, according to the police report. But that doesn't mean MLB can't suspend him. At worst, Chapman choked the mother of his child. At best, he fired his pistol indoors eight times while she hid in a bush, terrified. The police report said the bullets did not come close to striking anyone. They were, literally, warning shots.