Chapman’s Future with the Yankees is Among Baseball’s Biggest Offseason Storylines

The image of Aroldis Chapman smiling moments after surrendering the season-ending home run to José Altuve will no doubt linger in the minds of Yankees fans deep into the coming winter – or maybe it’ll be lodged in their memory banks forever.

If nothing else, Chapman’s reaction served as a reminder of how much the loss to the Astros in the American League Championship Series hurt. It was so shocking, so sudden, the rulebook for meltdown-conduct went right out the window. Aaron Boone’s eyes moistened in the post-game locker room. Aaron Judge’s shoulders heaved as he stood at his locker; it was obvious he was crying.

And Chapman? He was planted on the mound, frozen as Altuve circled the bases, looking at where the ball landed beyond Minute Maid Park’s left field wall. Chapman then turned his gaze to the mob of Astros waiting at home plate for their little slugger.

Chapman didn’t curse, he didn’t drop his head or throw his glove. Instead he smiled incredulously, later explaining, “I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it.” Neither could the Yankees or millions of fans watching on television back home, wondering how the miracle comeback in Game 6 turned into one of the most traumatic setbacks in franchise history.

Of course no one doubted Chapman had just taken the kind of gut punch that ruins closers. The score was tied 4-4, thanks to D.J. LeMahieu’s two-run HR in the top of the ninth – which in itself was a small miracle. It took LeMahieu 10 pitches to break down Houston’s Roberto Osuna, fouling off one seemingly unhittable pitch after another until a fastball, just as murderous as the first nine, went screaming over the outside corner.

LeMahieu was ready: he launched a missile over the right field wall, clearing George Springer’s glove by so little the Houston crowd – and Springer himself – wasn’t sure if the ball was in his glove or in the seats. The verdict came seconds later, as Springer, sans ball, slumped into a catcher’s crouch on the warning track. LeMahieu had just brought the Yankees back to life in the series and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the Bombers turned the visitors’ dugout into a closed-in riot.

Taking the mound in the bottom of the ninth, it was Chapman’s job to keep the Astros in check at least through the 10th. The idea was to capitalize on the momentum of LeMahieu’s homer, squeeze out another run and take the series to a decisive seventh game. Even though Gerrit Cole, the human strikeout machine, was waiting for the Yankees, nothing would’ve been impossible at that point.

And for the first two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Chapman just did just that. He plowed through Martin Maldonado and Josh Reddick. This was the same Chapman who’d picked up 37 saves this year, the most since 2012, and was still throwing blistering heat, racking up nearly 1.5 strikeouts per inning, better than his career average.

But then Chapman inexplicably walked Springer and, sensing the threat from Altuve, over-accelerated his arm in the next two fastballs. Both missed. Down 2-0 in the count Chapman threw a get-me-over slide that made it 2-1 before over-throwing the next slider, too.

It was supposed to break as fiercely as if caught in a wind-shear: its trajectory was supposed to deliver the ball somewhere near Altuve’s back foot. But the pitch did nothing more than helicopter its way into the middle of the plate. Altuve squared up on it in a way that everyone in the ballpark instantly knew the game – and the Yankees – were history. One swing and the Bombers’ 103 regular-season victories had been vaporized.

Days later Boone admitted he still hadn’t gotten over the shock. Whenever replays of Altuve’s home run appeared on TV, the manager was forced to look away. “It was a tough way to end,” he said.

General manager Brian Cashman was far more clinical, declaring the season a success despite the brutal final inning.

“We failed in the final game, but it’s not a failed season,” he said in a post-mortem press conference at Yankee Stadium. Instead of grieving, Cashman had already moved on, thinking of ways to improve the roster in 2020.

His first order of business: settle looming business with Chapman, who can opt out of the five-year, $86 million contract he signed prior to the 2017 season. The closer has two years and $34 million still owed to him and has thus far offered no clues if wants to return to the Bronx.

There was a mid-summer rumor that Chapman was preparing to exit. It gained enough traction for him to summon reporters to his locker to formally deny it. But there’s been little follow-up. The closer, who speaks broken English and generally avoids the press, is one of the Yankees’ in-house enigmas. Pleasant and polite, Chapman nevertheless keeps to himself. Whether he’s happy in New York – or if in fact he’s not – remains an unanswered question.

The Yankees will convene their pro scouts next week, at which point each talent evaluator will have a vote about who goes and who stays in 2020. Cashman wouldn’t tip his hand about the club’s strategy regarding Chapman: they could offer to renegotiate the back end of his contract to entice him to finish out his career in Pinstripes. Or the next step could be anointing Zack Britton as the new closer.

It’s a mystery for now, as indecipherable as the smile on Chapman’s face as the Yankees’ season went unforgettably down in flames.

Featured Image: Bob Levey / Getty Images Sport