Cincinnati Reds 2015 Grades: Aroldis Chapman

In the wake of the failed Los Angeles Dodgers deal, the domestic violence allegations, and the recent trade to the New York Yankee, it’s easy to forget that Aroldis Chapman had a pretty amazing year with the Cincinnati Reds. While Chapman will turn in his Reds jersey for pinstripes in 2016, he certainly had a fantastic season to go out on, and was one of the few high points for Reds fans this year.

Chapman got off to a fantastic start in 2015, appearing in 11 games in the month of April, pitching in 10 2/3 innings and didn’t allow a single run. Chapman also racked up 19 strikeouts with only three walks in that month. The lefty closer wouldn’t give up a run until May 10th against the Chicago White Sox. Chapman’s streak of not allowing a run may have ended, but he still managed to finish the month of May with only allowing four earned runs in the first two months of the season.

Chapman remained dominant for the remainder of the year, never allowing more than three runs in a month after May, and continued to strikeout batters at an alarming rate. By the end of the year, Chapman had a 1.63 ERA, a 1.146 WHIP, a 1.94 FIP, 116 strikeouts and a 3.52 strikeout to walk ratio. But as Chapman’s dominance continued, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Chapman would be traded away to a team that was a contender, while the Reds would continue their rebuild.

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In early December, a trade between the Reds and the Dodgers for Chapman seemed to be a done deal, when news broke that Chapman was allegedly involved in a domestic violence incident. MLB.com reported that Chapman, “fired eight gunshots into the garage of his Miami-area home following an October argument with his girlfriend, who told police Chapman choked her and pushed her against a wall.”  Major League Baseball announced that they would launch a domestic violence investigation regarding the incident.

When news of the incident broke, the Dodgers backed out of the trade with Reds, likely due to the fact that they already have one player being investigated by MLB for domestic violence (Yasiel Puig).

But despite the whirl of controversy surrounding Chapman, it was announced earlier this week that the Reds had struck up a deal for the closer with the New York Yankees. The package for Chapman included right-handed pitchers Rookie Davis and Caleb Cotham, third baseman Eric Jagielo and second baseman Tony Renda.

Read our review of the deal here.

Next: 2015 Grades: Jon Moscot

But for what he did on the field this year, there’s not a lot bad to say about Chapman. He was dominating, he was an All-Star and he was absolutely fantastic.

Grade: A+