About the Yanks and Chapman

I’m sure you’re all aware of a story that hit last evening about how the Yankees reportedly offered a deal in the neighborhood of $54 million to Aroldis Chapman. Involved in this is a lawsuit in Florida where the Yanks are suing Chapman’s representatives the Hendrick Brothers and Rodney Fernandez (tweeted by SI’s Melissa Segura).

Quite interesting stuff here. Let’s use our noodles for a moment, shall we?

No question there were a few MLB teams interested in Chapman ‘s services. The usual suspects, like the Yankees, were involved. Even Toronto and Houston were said to be in the running. Let’s be honest to ourselves though. The Reds did come out of nowhere to land the lefty. It was seriously a surprising move.

So when the cat was supposedly out of the bag, a Yankees blog, River Ave. Blues, was steaming about the report.

"From the head explodes department, Melissa Segura reports that the Yankees offered Cuban flamethrower Aroldis Chapman a contract “valued at more than $54 million” before he signed with the Reds last January. Holy crap. The info comes courtesy of a Florida law suit filed against Chapman’s representatives, the Hendricks Brothers and employee Carlos Thompson Rodney Fernandez. Chapman eventually signed a six-year deal worth just over $30M with Cincinnati."

It didn’t stop there. MLB Trade Rumors picked up on the chatter as well. (Note: It’s not odd this happened. The author of the post over on River Ave. Blues was Mike Axisa. He’s posted on MLBTR previously. In fact, Axisa has linked to a post here on BRM. Again, thanks Mike!)

You have to admit if the Reds had previously been considered the front-runner and were later “dumped”, you’d be irritated as well. Add the Cliff Lee spurning to the mindset of a Yankees fan and the cycle is complete.

Again, think. Why would anyone leave $24+ million bucks on the table? Seriously? $24 million? Who would be so insane to walk away from that? Hardly anyone unless you’re Cliff Lee and do NOT want to be a Yankee. Maybe Chapman didn’t want to become a Yankee either. Still, $24 million is too good to pass on especially since you’ve never thrown one pitch in the majors.

So, today Yankees GM Brian Cashman revealed that there was never an offer made to Chapman (ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets). Both MLB Trade Rumors and River Ave. Blues have denoted such by posting updates.

Okay. Cashman denies the offer. If so, why the lawsuit then?

Well, if you check out Craig Calcaterra’s post on Hardball Talk, you’ll see that the lawsuit against Chapman’s representatives was filed by Chapman’s former reps. And that has been settled. If anything, the former reps are trying to get more money from the current reps. There is no current litigation between the Yankees and Chapman and/or his reps.

Plus, Calcaterra reiterates the absurd notion that there was ever an offer in that amount.

"…I’m skeptical of that $54 million offer from the Yankees. It’s substantially higher than that which Chapman ultimately signed for and it makes little sense that he’d leave that kind of money on the table no matter who his agent was…"

Need more be said on this?