Former New York Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman reinvented himself with the Boston Red Sox this past season, but it doesn’t mean he’s open to a return to the Bronx.
In 2025 with Boston, Chapman was arguably the best closer in baseball after posting a 1.17 ERA with 85 strikeouts in 61.1 innings of work, notching 32 saves in the process.
Chapman spent seven seasons with the Yankees in two stints — one in 2016, and another from 2017-2022. He was named to three All-Star games, and pitched to a 2.94 ERA with 153 saves during his time in the Bronx.
However, his tenure in New York ended sourly, pitching to a porous 4.46 ERA with just nine saves in 2022 before vanishing from the team shortly before the 2022 playoffs due to uncertainty on if he’d be named to the postseason roster.
Chapman recently appeared on the Swing Completo podcast where he vehemently stated his desire to never return to the Yankees.
“No way. Not even dead,” he said. “If I were told that I was being traded to New York, I’d pack my things and go home. I’ll retire right on the spot if that happens. I’m not crazy. Never again.”
Chapman took plenty of heat during his time as the Yankees’ closer, igniting his supposed beef with the franchise.
“I dealt with a lot of disrespect there,” he continued. “I put up with a lot of things. I knew that they just wanted to find a way to get rid of me, but they didn’t know how. And I just dealt with it quietly, kept playing, and doing what I always do.”
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