When the Yankees traded Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs in July, he said he'd love to come back. That wasn't just lip service. He meant it. How do I know? Because that's exactly what he did. To the tune of five years and $86 million.
While it seemed like a reunion was inevitable, the midseason trade of Chapman has to go down as one of the shrewdest moves of Brian Cashman's tenure as Yankees GM. The Cubs knew they needed an elite closer to win the World Series, and they were willing to give up top-level prospects to do it. Cashman knew the Yankees weren't going anywhere in 2016, so he took the greatest asset he had and turned it into a prospect stockpile that's the envy of every other organization.
And it's abundantly clear that the trade worked out well for everybody. The Cubs don't win their first title in 108 years without Chapman, who was always going to be a rental. All the Yankees lost was a couple months of his services while restocking their farm system in the process. Chapman, meanwhile, got a ring and drove up his own value. He showed he can pitch in New York. Then won a ring in Chicago...with the team that hadn't won in more than a century!
Chapman's absence showed just how valuable he was to the Yankees, too. Choose whatever reason you want, but Dellin Betances didn't cut it as the closer. He's better suited to being a setup man. They also knew that the best thing they had going for half the season was the No Runs DMC bullpen. Then M and C got traded (and both ended up in the World Series, so I'd say both trades worked out). If they're going to be contenders again, it's going to start with a dominant back end of the bullpen.
More than that, Chapman brings a burst of energy back into Yankees fans. Let me tell you, going to a game was much different in June than it was in September. People actually stayed until the end of teh game during the three months Chapman was on the team. When that bullpen door swung open and he was throwing 105, you could feel it. It wasn't the same as when "Enter Sandman" was played and Mariano Rivera did his thing. But it's the closest you're gonna come to that.
I'm not saying Aroldis Chapman is Mariano Rivera. As a Yankees fan (and a baseball fan), it would be blasphemous to even think that. Mo's the greatest closer in history for a reason, and we were spoiled to see him for 20 years. He was the backbone of a dynasty that won five championships, and no one ever questioned his value. That marquee closer is something the Yankees knew they needed and were missing until they traded for Chapman last offseason, and now it's back with him returning.
There are critics that were quick to slam the Yankees for the amount of money they're investing and/or the length of the deal. ESPN's Andrew Marchand blasted Cashman for "wasting" the first two years of Chapman's contract during the rebuilding process when the Yankees will, at best, content for a wild card. And it's true that Chapman can opt out after 2019, but the rest of Marchand's arguments are flimsy at best. He pointed out that the Cubs didn't even try to re-sign him (perhaps because they didn't want to shell out the kind of money he was going to command) and that only one closer had ever been given a five-year deal before and that Betances will be a free agent in 2019 (when they'll either have to pay both of them or let Betances walk) and that he missed the first month of his Yankees career serving a domestic violence suggestion. Marchand also predicted (probably correctly) that Chapman's fastball velocity is inevitably going to dip. What does that mean exactly, though? 99? I'll still take that.
But the Yankees made re-signing Chapman a priority for a reason. So what if he doesn't necessarily "fit in" with their youth-oriented strategy? That's exactly why they had to sign him. And, if you think about it, the deal does make sense. The Yankees had the money to spend and Chapman was the one guy they wanted. It was a closer-rich market, but he was always their guy. And this is a team that knows the value of a dominant closer.
Most importantly, Aroldis Chapman is a guy who'll keep people's butts in the seats until Sinatra starts singing. Watching him is exciting. He's a star who shines brightly underneath New York's intense spotlight. Besides, who else were they going to sign? They still need a starter, but the market for them is weak. And outside of Betances, there's no one else in the bullpen worth writing home about.
Say Sanchez and Co. (who, by the way, are all signed on the cheap, leaving the team with plenty of money to spend) keep the Yankees in contention. They would've been looking for that lockdown guy in the ninth, which the 2015 Royals and 2016 Cubs and Indians have proven is vital. Now they don't need to worry about that. They found it in a very familiar place.
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